Of Souls and Reploids
by tsukasa030
Summary: Just after the Battle with Lumine the Maverick Hunters have returned to Earth in order to heal. With Sigma and the New Generation reploids under control or destroyed Axl must confront his past. MMBNMMX Crossover
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 1

X and Zero were on their way to the medical wing where their injured comrade was currently being repaired. "I know you've heard this a thousand times before, but Axl just isn't cutout to be a Maverick Hunter.", stated the blue reploid as he reached the door to the recovery room.

The blonde swordsman turned to his long time friend and said, "X give it up. I'll admit he did get himself injured by Lumine during the last Maverick uprising, but he's still one of the best hunters we've got." Zero stopped X from opening the door with his hand and continued, "X the boy knows fighting is a necessary part of life. He fights to protect people just as you do, so don't keep jumping down his throat about every mistake he makes."

X offered his fellow reploid a fierce glare and spat, "He treats missions like they're games. He doesn't understand that fighting is wrong." To further his point he reminded Zero of how Axl always jumps into a fight head first without even attempting to end it peacefully.

"X the whole pacifist thing works for you, but there are times when we must fight and the kid knows it.", said Zero returning the glare. "Furthermore Axl's hasty actions have saved hundreds of Reploid and Human lives. Can't you just trust in my judgment on this?"

The blue hunter knew that the swordsman was even more stubborn than he is and so X consented defeat...for now, "Alright, but I want you to work with him. He's got to stop with this 'shoot first, shoot some more, and then when every bodies dead try to ask a question or two' attitude."

Offering a smirk to his friend Zero opened the door to medical only to be run over by Pallette. "Oh! Sorry Zero. I didn't see you there.", she apologized.

The hunter look over her blushing face and thought _"She's so obvious. Ah...young love."_ He accepted the hand she offered him and once he was back on his feet he said, "Checking up on your crush, huh?"

Pallette had a mortified expression on her face as she stuttered, "Wha...What...I...I just...wanted to...make sure one of our hunters was ok." She knew very well that the older reploid had already figured out who had been breaking into the medical ward at night and why. _"How did he figure it out? It's not fair. Maybe I can get him to drop it if I turn his attention elsewhere."_

"Well how is he?", X asked ignoring the previous outburst and the perverted smile on Zero's face.

"Oh so now you care about him!", she snapped. She would've tore into X then and there, but Zero stopped her with a hand motion. "Fine! He's ok. The purple shard turned out to be a crystallized portion of a 'Reploid Killer' class virus. Don't be concerned Alia managed to isolate it and remove it before it reached any of his vital systems."

Breathing a sigh of relief Zero muttered, "In other words the kid dodged the bullet and will need a few weeks rest."

The navigator nodded rapidly, "Which as we all know will be next to impossible considering he **HATES** waiting while his body recovers and systems repaired."

They all agreed on that one. X considered bluffing the teenage reploid with the threat of 'Rest or we won't allow you to remain a Maverick Hunter', but that ended up starting an argument with X on one side and Zero & Pallette on the other.

As the debate started to get heated again a mechanic stepped out of the room and rushed past them. An "Excuse me." was heard as the man left the vicinity.

The arguing continued on for another sever or eight minutes before the navigator managed to best X with words. "Alright. I'll admit he's done some good...I just don't want to see him emotionally destroyed by all the chaos. Despite his skills he's still just a kid.", X finished.

"He's more than just a kid...He's a hunter just like you X. It's his decision to fight and with or without your help he will, so don't you forget it.", Pallette said while trying to glare holes in her "superior's" head. She then walked off to get some rest since she wouldn't get a chance to with her next shift starting in only four hours.

"Shall we?", Zero gestured with his hands.

X narrowed his eyes and said, "Very funny."

They entered the room and found Axl buried under a blanket. Zero smirked when he saw the bed and X walked over to it. Once at the bed he pulled back the sheet to find something he knew he should've seen coming, "He's not here. This guy is the mechanic...that left just a little while ago."

Zero was shaking his head and replied, "I figured that much out when I saw the bed. Axl never covers his face with a sheet...tries to eat the pillows sometimes, but that's about it." He looked over the man and could see where Axl had been rather rough in restraining him. His arms and legs were tied together with some of the extra sheets while a thick gauze was stuff in his mouth. _"That poor human never had a chance. "The Three Laws didn't stop the kid from playing dirty...I guess his design is more like Lumine than we thought."_

The two hunters used the intercom to inform the base to be on the lookout for an escaped medical patient.

* * *

"Uh Oh! They're onto me." the young reploid stated as he changed his form to another hunter he knew.

About this time a soldier rounded the corner and ran up to him, "Sir. We haven't located the patient yet."

"Keep searching. Don't let him get away.", 'X' stated as he began 'inspecting' a nearby vent that one could easily fit through. _"This is the old ventilation system if I remember correctly...Perfect."_

The soldier then ran off to continue his sweep while Axl considered different places to hide. He knew that if either X or Zero ran across him he was as good as caught and Alia...Alia could be scary when her patients runaway.

"This way." a voice from behind spoke.

Axl's eyes were met with the navigator Pallette and he couldn't help but smile. "Lead the way." The two Reploids maneuvered through the base and managed to avoid the two hunters and other soldiers. "So how did you know it was actually me instead of X?", he asked out of curiosity.

She turned those sparkling eyes towards his and answered, "Because you could never 'act' like X." The navigator saw her crush look downed at her response and the finished, "X is just such an..."

"An ass..." the Reploid currently sitting on her bed said as the two escapees entered Pallette's quarters. "I had a feeling in my gut you'd end up here.", he directed at Axl.

"Hi...Hi ya Zero.", the teen managed to say before trying to back out the door. Once the door opened again he was met with the sight of X calmly tapping his finger against his crossed arms and Alia.

"Didn't I leave you in the medical wing?", said Alia as she advanced on the teenager. The look on her patient's face reminded her of a deer caught in the headlights. "Well?"

The teen reverted back to his true form and gulped before answering, "Yes...Yes maim." _"If I had any sense at all I'd shoot a hole in the wall and run for it. How does she always do 'that' to people?"_

The navigator moved her face closer to Axl and said, "Then don't you think that's where your supposed to be." She was pleased to see him nodding vigorously and walked back to the blue hunter. "Let Zero take him. Right now you'd say something you would regret later.", she consoled.

X approved and Zero escorted the runaway back to his now vacant bed. "Your not going to impress the Brass or get yourself back in the field sooner by pulling stunts like this.", he lectured on the way back.

"I know. I know.", the red head replied, "But I just hate lying around doing nothing. I rust of boredom that way." The other hunter chuckled at this and motioned for him to return to his bed. Axl heard the red reploid say "Try to get some rest." before leaving the room to stand guard. _"Great! Now I've got him standing guard right outside my door. I could try the vents, but I'm certain he'd hear the noise before I could get through them...guess I'll have to wait for my chance."_

Alia then walks into the room after greeting Zero. "Axl. Could you tell me how you were able to hurt that mechanic?" She was met with a look of confusion on the young boy's face, "I mean he is human and yet you could still hurt him. Why? How?"

Axl started to panic. _"She going to bust me!"_ He took a deep breath and seemed to be thinking over the 'new information', "Maybe it's got something to do with that virus Lumine tried to scrap me with?", he offered. He managed to make it sound convincing and felt relief when the navigator seemed to accept his answer.

"Well we will have to watch that closely. Let me know if you notice anything unusual happening to you in the meantime.", she said before running a few scans over the boy just to be safe. Of course the scans turned up nothing, so she went back to work monitoring missions.

"_I thought she'd never leave. It's not like she'd believe me anyways...my life sucks"_ The young hunter laid down and chose to enter 'Recharge Mode' instead of normal sleep in order to avoid dreaming again. _"I just don't want to be reminded of that."_, were his last conscious thoughts before nothing.

* * *

X and Zero were in the training room sparing as they usually do. "X you seem a little distracted lately. What's going on?"

Said hunter look at Zero with depressed green eyes and replied, "Just feelings I get while I'm around Axl."

The red swordsman noticed how X always seemed so overprotective of the kid...seeming almost instinctively towards him at times. "What kind of feelings?"

He sighed and scratched his unarmored head, "I just want to see him get hurt. Every time he does...I just let anything bad happen to someone so young."

Zero was sure that there was something more there that X either wasn't aware of or was unwilling to share. "He's a grown young man. The kid will make his own decisions and he'll have us to look after him. That's what it means to be a soldier, a unit."

The green eyed machine agreed with him on that before cutting their sparring session short. "I just need some time to think.", he said before walking out.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 2

In the infirmary Axl lies on the bed tossing and turning in his sleep. Alia notices his movements and walks over to him for an inspection. She sees that he's sweating profusely and generally seems to be afraid of something. _"He must be having a nightmare."_, she thought as the Reploid gently placed her hand on the teen's forehead.

The instant Alia's hand made contact with the hunter's synthetic skin she realized her mistake as the boy had shot up and summoned his twin guns from subspace. The navigator now had cold steel pressed to the side of her head and she could see absolute terror displayed in Axl's eyes. "Axl...Axl calm down.", she said hoping not to get shot.

Axl looked to his side and saw himself holding one of his guns to his friend's head, but at the same time he didn't really see anything. He was overwhelmed with fear preventing him from thinking straight. _"No the dreams again. How? I didn't enter 'Sleep Mode'. Why is this still happening to me?"_ The reploid then pulled the blanket to his face and used it to wipe the sweat off his face.

Axl took several minutes, but eventually he was able to take some deep breathes and calm himself down. "Huh? Oh! Alia...Sorry..he..hehe.", he said when he mind finally registered that he had his weapon trained on the Navigator.

The blue haired reploid composed herself quickly and accepted his apology. Her curiosity about her patient's nightmares however would not let this incident go without at least trying for some answers. "Axl, If I might ask you a personal question?", she said asking for permission to continue.

The hunter on the other hand had a different idea, "NO! Alia please. It's not something I feel comfortable talking about, so please just drop it."

The medic was used to the teen's outbursts so she wasn't surprised by his reaction. "Well if you ever feel the need to talk about it you come to me, ok?" She watched the young reploid nod sluggishly before lying back down on the bed. _"He's still scared. What could have terrified him like that? He didn't even flinch when he fought Sigma or Lumine and now some nightmare has him spooked. I need to talk to Zero about this."_ Alia called a nurse in to keep an eye on the teen and stationed two guards at the doors to prevent any escape attempts.

* * *

After finishing with changes in security Alia grabbed Zero from the door and took him to the cafe. "So what did ya want to talk about? X giving the kid a hard time again? Or was he planning another escape?", the hunter asked in a neutral tone.

Alia looked thoughtful for a second before saying, "Neither...I hope." She pulled a hot cup of coffee closer to herself and started staring into it, "Zero."

The hunter was concerned that X had messed things up with her or something was wrong with Axl. "Go on. Tell me what's bothering you?", he urged the other reploid.

She sighed and then said, "It is about Axl." The navigator saw Zero direct his full attention to her before continuing, "He had a nightmare. A really, really unsettling nightmare."

Zero scoffed at her and said, "Considering what he's been through lately I'm not surprised. Everyone has bad dreams every now and then. I myself have them on certain past issues."

She picked up a spoon and started playing with her coffee. She knew that Zero was now fully aware that this was far more serious than just a nightmare, "Yeah well...You've never pulled a gun on somebody because of a nightmare." The navigator looked up to see the hunter's mouth hanging wide open and a loss of color in his face.

"Axl? Pulled a gun on you? Why?", he asked when the shock finally wore off.

She shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I don't know. But whatever it was I know in every fiber of my being that Axl's nightmares have something to do with it." She leaned back in her seat to try to make herself comfortable, "He didn't even realize that he was prepared to kill me until several minutes of holding the gun to my head."

The blonde was alarmed at "the kid's" behavior. _"This isn't like Axl at all...Unless...Oh no."_ He spent a few more minutes trying to soothe Alia's shocked and shattered nerves before he left to confront Axl.

* * *

Pallette had just finished her shift and wanted to see Axl again. _"Maybe if I'm careful I can avoid Alia and spend some time with Axl."_, she thought as she approached the door. "Why so many guards?", she asked one of the soldiers.

"Alia's orders ma'am.", the tallest one answered.

She asked to enter and at first they seemed to be uncertain whether or not that was such a good idea. "Please. I promise I'll leave if I cause any trouble.", she pleaded using the puppy dog eyes. Both men consented to allow her entry and she took full advantage. "Axl? It's Pallette.", she said as she passed through the door way. She was surprised to see a nurse sleeping and what appeared to be a young boy standing in front of a window staring out at the the rain clouds.

The boy heard her and looked at her with soft brown eyes before saying, "Hi Pallette. Don't mind the snoring", he said motioning towards the nurse.

She was confused and certain her face told the boy as much. "Do you know where Axl is? He was in here earlier. I hope he didn't escape again. Alia will chain him down to the bed if he pulled that again."

The young boy chuckled and said, "I'm Axl Pallette. And here I was thinking you'd recognize me no matter what form I took...", he said trying unsuccessfully to sound hurt by her questions.

The blonde navigator looked the teen over and noted his appearance. _"Messy brown hair, brown eyes, orange vest, and a bandanna with a strange symbol on it. I think that's everything...well except for the fact he looks like he's only twelve or thirteen years old...for a human that is."_ Pallette looked Axl over several times before asking, "Where did you get that appearance from?"

Axl immediately lowered his head and turned back to the window. _"If only she know?"_, he thought. It was then that he felt something wet on his face. He moved his hand to wipe the liquid off and Axl discovered that he was crying. _"Not again. Please not this again."_

The navigator approached her friend, but was stopped when he growled at her to stay back. She froze not really sure what she could do to help him. "Axl please. Talk to me. Tell me what's wrong with you. Is it the Maverick virus or did X say something again. Cause if he did I'll...", she began.

"No it's nothing like that.", he interrupted her before she got carried away. "I'm different from other Reploids..."

"I know.", she saw him give her a surprised look and finished, "Your a Second-Generation Reploid. Immune to the Maverick Virus and the prototype for all the other Second-Generation Reploids." Pallette saw the relieved look wash over the injured hunter and she had to ask, "What? It's true isn't it?"

Axl pulled her over to the window next to himself and said, "That's not it either. Although I'm still a bit concerned that I'll turn Maverick like Lumine and the others." He put his head on the window and was pleased that his creator had given him the ability to 'feel' the cold just like a human could. Of course he could do EVERYTHING a human could from sleeping, to eating, and regenerating like they could. He was uncertain whether or not it was safe to tell her, but he wanted to have someone else know the truth.

"Take your time Axl." the blonde encouraged the other teen reploid.

Finally after several failed attempts Axl began, "I am different from other Reploids because I wasn't born a Reploid." He knew she was confused at his statement and so he went on to say, "I was human once. My name was Lan Hikari, but 'things' happened and I ended up on my deathbed at only the age of thirteen."

Deciding that the hunter was in need of a psychological evaluation she started to back away when she heard someone say, "He's telling you the truth you know."

Both turned to see Zero standing propped up against the door. Somehow while Axl had been talking the swordsman had slipped in without either of them noticing. Axl gave a uncertain look and asked, "Do you really believe me Zero?"

The swordsman smiled and said, "Yeah Lan. I do...because I was there when **'it'** happened."

Pallette was worried about the mental health of both hunters at this point, "Are sure your both ok? We could have Alia perform thorough checkups on the both of you."

Axl expected as much since even he wouldn't believe such a wild story if it didn't happen to him. "We're fine, but...", he said turning back to Zero and glaring at him, "How do you know about me? Who...what are you?"

Zero narrowed his eyes and said, "You always referred to me as the mutant haired freak...remember?"

Axl's eyes widened and he braced himself against the wall. "You...your...Chaud?" The teen watched Zero give a wolfish smile and nod. "I remember you were there the day Dark Protoman attacked us. You saved me, but I thought for sure you were dead."

Zero flinched when his former navi was mentioned, "No I made it. Though apparently whatever Dr. Regal gave him to use to get rid of us separated us across space and time. I've been here over a hundred years and you seem to have been a reploid for a lot less time."

The teen chuckled and said, "Yeah. Dr. Denise Wildman found my dying body. She took me to her lab where she was developing my current body and after she'd made every attempt possible told me that the only way I could live was as a Reploid. Denise hooked me up to all kinds of machines and transfered my mind into the prototype."

The swordsman and navigator took some time for the background story to sink in. "So that's how you ended up as a Reploid. I always wondered when you'd tell me about your past.", Zero muttered.

Axl of course heard every word and reacted immediately, "YOU KNEW THE ENTIRE TIME THAT I WAS LAN! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?"

The blonde locked eyes with Axl and said, "Because you were too stubborn to talk about it or anything else for that matter. If you recall when I did ask about your life you would only tell me about your days with 'Red Alert'."

The teen knew that Zero was right as he recalled those times. Now it made sense why the swordsman was so curious and why he always looked out for Axl.

"So both of you were human at one point and now your Reploids?", Pallette asked already sure of the answer. Both boys nodded and looked back at each other.

Axl spoke first, "Now what do we do? Dr. Regal and Nebula are probably tearing Earth apart assuming they haven't already." The young boy was certain that there was a way to get back home, but he had no clue as to how to do it.

"We'll find a way Lan. Don't worry so much. After you've healed we'll look for some leads to get home...though I'm not sure how the others are going to react to out situation.", the older Reploid said as he began going through everything he knew on the subject. Of course over the years he'd tried to find a way back home and he really hoped that time did pass differently in different universes. "Oh and Axl. Don't pull a gun on Alia again. You scared the poor girl senseless.", he said opening the door.

Before Zero could leave Axl said, "You called me Lan?"

The blonde looked back and said, "Yeah. That's your real name. What's the problem?"

Giving an embarrassed smile Lan said, "Thanks. Tell me how did you end up as a Reploid?" Lan immediately regretted asking the question when Zero tensed up.

"I don't feel like talking about that", he said before reassuring his old rival, "At least not yet. Even after all this time it's not easy to talk about." The swordsman knew that Lan and Pallette would understand...of course his old friend would know better than anyone what he was going through. _"Except in my case events were not as pleasant as yours Hikari. You got easy compared to what I was put through."_

Pallette watched Zero leave the room before she bombarded 'Lan' with questions about his previous existence as a human. Before he agreed to answer any questions however he made her promise not to tell anyone. She pointed out that the nurse might hear something only to receive a grin and an empty bottle of sleeping pills as a response. _"I can't believe...Wait a minute yes I can. I can believe that Axl would do something like that. He'll never grow up and that's why I like him."_


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 3

Pallette spent the better part of the next day digesting yesterday's revelations. She was concerned that the fact Axl was once human would render her advances useless. _"No! I'm not going to give up that easily...but still I can't help but wonder if he has someone back home..."_ Brushing her thoughts aside the young navigator went to attend to her duties for the day.

When she got to the control room for the Maverick Hunter missions she found her good friend Layer monitoring training exercises of some new recruits. In Pallette's opinion most of these guys would either be cut or scrapped within the first month. _"Guess they really don't make 'em like they used to."_

"So...how are things going with Axl?", the purple haired navigator asked. Of course she knew that Pallette had given Axl her full attention. Layer had even been there when the younger reploid had asked Axl to teach her how to use different guns. She also knew that to Pallette that was their first date, but Axl didn't see it as anything more than training a comrade on how to defend herself.

The young blonde took her seat next to Layer and began her job of assisting the Hunters with finding hidden routes. "I...well I...", she sighed trying to think how much she should tell her friend, "Axl still just thinks of me as a friend. He did however tell me a little bit about his past."

Layer stopped what she was doing and turned to look at the younger reploid. "What did he say? What did he say?", she asked.

Pallette wasn't surprised by the reaction, in fact she had even been expecting it. Everyone at the HQ had always been curious about the origins of the New Generation Reploid Prototype, but he'd always refused to tell anyone anything more than his days with Red and 'Red Alert'. Naturally if anyone heard even a slight detail about him everyone wanted to know. "Just who designed him and how he'd had a rough life before 'Red Alert'. I really shouldn't say anymore than that. It seemed so painful for him to just tell me that little bit."

"Oh...Well I can understand that...So what can you tell me?", she begged. Before she could receive an answer one of the trainees cried out in pain as he'd been shot by a drone. Quickly Layer turned her attention back to the recruits feeling a little embarrassed by her goof.

As the two navigators provided assistance Pallette explained, "I can't really tell you anything other than the fact that Axl was built by someone name Denise Wildman. The rest is just too personal to share...I'm sorry."

Layer understood and made a mental note to run a search for Denise after her shift ended. _"Maybe we have her somewhere in our database..."_, she thought as another recruit dropped after ignoring her advice to attack the drone from the side. _"Idiots...If this is the future then we may as well hand our lives over to any future Mavericks."__

* * *

_

In the infirmary Alia was checking over Axl when she noticed patches of white armor scattered across the Hunter's body. "Now when did this happen Axl? Get into a fight with a paint can?", she mused out loud.

Said reploid growled a response before shifting into the form of X. He then grabbed her hands and began to confess his eternal love for her.

Alia knew he was mocking her and X's relationship, so she stomped down on the teens foot which had been hanging off the bed when she began her inspection. "THAT'S NOT FUNNY AXL!", she growled. Taking a few deep breathes to regain control of her temper she resumed her inspection, "Seriously when did these patches first appear?"

The teen looked thoughtful for a minute or two and then answered, "I just noticed them this morning." Indeed when he'd gotten up he had the pleasure of greeting an angry nurse that had glared at him all morning long, but what had stood out to him was a white patch appearing on his normally black colored arm. Axl didn't really think anything of it at first, but now he was concerned that it might be something hazardous. "It's not that virus Lumine infected me with is it!", he asked frantically.

Alia forced the boy to lay down on the bed while she ran a few scans on his body. The scans came back with results that made no sense to her, "Axl, I don't think it's the virus. At the same time I can't really tell you what it is. I'm afraid I just don't know enough about your design to give you any explanation." She checked the equipment just to make sure it was defective and found that everything was in working order. "Perhaps if your creator was here it could shed some light on this...anomaly."

Immediately following the words leaving Alia's mouth Axl's eyes shot wide open and he seemed to pale. _"Oh no! Not Denise, anything but that."_, he thought remembering the day her left her determined to make it on his own in the world. He turned to the navigator and asked, "Are you sure you can't fix this on your own? I've seen you fix X when he was in much worse condition than me."

Alia considered the teen's words for a minute and replied, "Sorry Axl. But X supplied me with detailed schematics on himself. Your design on the other hand is still a bit of a mystery to us. It's true we could replicate some of your original design, but not all of it. To make matters worse we really haven't been able to understand all the advancements made to your specs."

Knowing that the 'doctor' was right Axl agreed to make contact with the scientist that built him and have her come to HQ. "Hmmm...God help me. I know I'll never hear the end of it once she arrives.", he muttered.

The navigator however caught the last part, "She? As in the person that built you is a woman?" Alia's eyes light up with the knowledge that a fellow woman had created such an advanced reploid without the help of any man. _"That's one giant leap for us women. Take that Dr. Light."_

Poor Axl had watched the expressions cross Alia's face as she dwelled on the recently discovered fact. _"Oh God, not another one."

* * *

_

Zero and X had just finished up with another mission as they entered Commander Signas office. The swordsman greeted the Commander with ,"Another batch of Mavericks have been sent to the scrap heap. Any rookie could've handled that assignment."

The ranking officer gave the Hunter an annoyed look and said, "Well if that's the way you feel I can always let you clean the floors, polish my boots, or maybe even walk Alia's dog."

Zero paled realizing he'd pushed too far, "Come on sir. I just want a tough assignment, not something that's going to bore me to death." The blonde thought for a second and then asked, "Perhaps I could train some new recruits?"

Signas broke into a fit of laughter hearing the Hunter's suggestion while X found the floor to be exceptionally interesting. During the laughing fit Signas managed to get out, "You...you...and...the recruits."

Zero was thoroughly annoyed at his superior's reaction, "What's so funny!"

Managing to suppress his laughter the Commander responded, "The last time I had you train recruits they all petitioned me to get a replacement instructor. Everyone of them were completely terrified of you and couldn't even hear your name without tripping over each other trying to find a hiding place. Then again you also had nearly everyone of them in the infirmary on their first day." Signas recalled facts from that chaotic week, "I do believe only one managed to avoid any extreme damaged and that was Axl. The rest nearly had to be completely rebuilt after you were done with them. Thankfully we avoided any lawsuits."

Zero didn't think he'd been 'that rough' on the trainees. In fact to him he had went easy on them their first day. He knew Axl could hold his own, so he didn't find it necessary to hold back during that session. _"Lan nearly beat me too. Thankfully he didn't know who I am or he would've been able to predict my moves and pin me down."_

Zero was going to try a different approach to get to the trainees when Alia broke into the room. "Sorry to interrupt sir.", she addressed the Commander.

Brushing aside the interruption Signas informed her to proceed. "Yes sir.", she began, "Something is happening to Axl."

Zero and X immediately turned their attention to the navigator as she went on, "I don't really know what it is or if it constitutes a danger to his health or the rest of the population, but in order to find out we need help."

The Commander asked, "What do you need from me?"

"I just need a skilled bodyguard to pick up...Axl's creator.", she said knowing the questions she was in for. "Sir Axl managed to get in touch with the person and now we need somebody to escort them here to help diagnose Axl's...condition.", she finished not really knowing how else to word it.

Zero frowned recognizing the look he saw on the Commander's face. _"You've got to be kidding me. I don't play taxi for anyone."_

"Well Zero, I guess your going to get your 'new assignment' after all.", the smirking officer said.

The Hunter was outraged to be forced on such a lame task, but when Signas pointed out that Axl needed to have this person here Zero's protests were silenced. _"You owed me big time for this Lan...and I intend to collect."

* * *

_

In DenTech city Laika and Searchman had been forced to take over in the absence of the city's two finest NetSaviors. "It's been six months since 'it' happened and Nebula has been relentless in their attacks."

Searchman was inclined to agree. Since the 'deaths' of Chaud and Lan Darkchips were popping up everywhere and Darkloid attacks were frequent. "Dr. Regal has become relentless, but we're all this city has left...no all the world has left." During the absence of Chaud and Lan the Sharo soldiers had reluctantly agreed to use the Synchro-Chip Dr. Hikari had made for them. While they were able to crossfuse the first try Laika still hated having to use it deeming it a display of weakness.

Misaki Gorou had been chasing down leads hoping that by some slime chance he'd manage to catch Ms. Yuri. _"If I can capture her she will surely know the whereabouts of Dr. Regal."_

Lan's friends and NetNavi MegaMan still mourned the loss of their best friend and protector. The Hikari family was taking it badly as would be expected with MegaMan being the most shattered.

MegaMan still held on to the hope that his twin was still out there somewhere. The navi had felt the bond he shared with his NetOp weaken severely, but to his surprise it wasn't destroyed. Yuuichiro was uncertain of what to make of this strange twist and contributed it to denial on MegaMan's part, not that he could really blame him.

The blue navi spent most of the time trying to comfort his mother while she grieved over losing another son...but this time he couldn't be saved even by something as extreme as converting him into a navi. The main reason for this is that when Dark Protoman had attacked the two human NetSaviors he had used a device Regal had created that generated a temporary black hole which had consumed both boys. MegaMan was saved by the Darkloid only to prolong his pain and suffering.

"I swear I'll avenge you little brother...even if it costs me my life a second time.", the navi vowed as another day came to an end.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 4

In Signas office he had Alia and Pallette brought in to discuss current issues. "In a little under three hours Zero should be arriving with this Dr. Denise Wildman...", he began.

Alia looked at the commander knowing where this was leading, "And you want us to find out as much as we possibly can about this woman and the technology wrapped up in Axl's body." The navigator absolutely hated politics for this very reason. To her it was a despicable thing to go snooping around like this and especially under these circumstances. _"Have we fallen this far?"_

The younger blonde was currently trying to glare a hole into the Commander's head and flatly informed him, "No. I won't go sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. Axl's a friend and a Maverick Hunter, I would think that entitles him to some privacy."

Signas could feel a migraine coming on and replied, "I don't like this any more than you do, but I catching heat from those who fund our organization. They want the technology Dr. Wildman created when she built Axl." The Commander walked around his desk and placed a reassuring hand on the teen Reploid's shoulder, "If there is a way around this I promise you I'll find it. In the meantime we have to do as we are told to do."

As the two navigators left the office they thought about how Axl had already allowed them to study his design. Of course they had no idea that the really advanced portions of his body were designed specifically to throw anyone examining him off. Denise was no fool and was certain that if her creation ever came to the attention of the Maverick Hunters or the people funding them that they would find some excuse to see what made the teen tick.

During the first month Axl had been with the Hunters they had examined his form thoroughly saying they were "making records for emergency use". Supposedly they did this for the boy's benefit and to some very limited extent they had been right. The schematics had been very useful when Axl needed repairs that were too severe to allow to heal on there own.

Alia recalled her surprise when she first found out that Axl's body could somehow regenerate on it's own without the use of a mechanic or anything at all as far as she could tell. Obviously he'd been designed with this strength and many others in mind, but it infuriated her that she couldn't figure out how he was able to do it.

After a trained team had finished their study of the prototype they went to work developing the New Generation Reploids. As Pallette remembered how well that had turned out, _"Those guys have the ability to go Maverick at will...but then does Axl possess that capability as well. They were made from his design, so it should be possible."_

Alia went to the infirmary to prepare for any operations that might become necessary in the future while Pallette went to work preparing quarters for the good doctor. Pallette chose quarters right across from Axl so Denise could work on her creation in private if it became necessary and to give them so privacy.

* * *

Zero had arrived in the middle of a desert six hours ago and was really ticked when he realized that the 'good doctor' had setup T-Jammers all around her lab. The Jammers had been positioned under the sand so that it would be nearly impossible to hit them and they blocked all attempts to transport within a twenty mile radius. _"This woman is extremely paranoid...and a real pain. Maybe I should've taken X up on that offer to get anger management...Nah!"_

The swordsman continued heading towards the coordinates supplied to him by Axl which took him another hour and twenty seven minutes. When Zero finally reached his destination he found just more sand and a single cactus waiting for him. "Damn it. Where is this whack job?", he shouted frustrated that the woman was nowhere in sight.

He rechecked his GPS and the system showed that he was in the right place or at least in the place Axl had told him to go. _"Lan if you gave me the wrong coordinates I'll scrap you myself when I get back..."_, he thought.

"Now, who's a whack job?", a sweet voice asked.

The Hunter turned around to see a young woman and an elevator with the cactus on the roof. Zero saw the look on the doctor's face and recalled the sound of her voice realizing that **HE** was in serious danger if he said the wrong thing. _"Why did it have to be a woman?"_, he thought before walking over to the doctor.

"I apologize Dr. Wildman. I didn't know you were here.", he said in an emotionless voice. On the inside however he was praying that she accepted the apology or at least didn't give him a hard time.

Smirking she said, "Obviously you didn't otherwise you wouldn't have insulted me." She motioned for Zero to follow her and he did, "Good puppy."

Zero heard her comment and had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something back. _"Somebody must really hate me up there..."_ Denise took both of them down in the her lab using the elevator and the swordsman quickly found himself face to face with a pile of crates. He was informed that she would need all of this to do her work, "Well that could be a problem seeing as how someone...setup T-Jammers all over the area, so transporting them out of here is out of the question."

Dr. Wildman laughed at him and pulled a remote out of her pocket. She pressed it and said, "Problem solved. The Jammers are temporarily turned off, so you can take them to the surface and take them to your base."

The swordsman could feel his eye twitching and knew that this woman had probably been playing games with him since he'd arrived in the area. "FINE.", he growled out before he brought the crates up to the surface. It took him twenty minutes to get them all up to the surface and afterwards he set a beacon on them so that HQ could lock on to them with a transport beam. Sure enough a few minutes after the beacon was set the crates disappeared in a flash of light.

Zero went back underground to get the doctor and found her walking towards him carrying a laptop and still wearing her lab coat. "Ready to go?", he asked impatiently.

"Obviously I am", she retorted before walking past him. Denise knew the Hunter wanted nothing more than to kill her by now and that was why she'd kept pushing him. _"The simple minded are so fun to tease."__

* * *

_

Back at HQ Axl was waiting for the arrival of his creator and the white patches were spreading. Alia had even taken some paint and tried to cover them up, but the paint just faded back to white as soon as she stopped spray the paint. She was really starting to get worried and couldn't wait for Zero to get back with this Denise woman.

Pallette walked in and asked a few questions, "What do you think she's like?" was among the first. The two Reploids continued to share their thoughts about Axl's creator when Signas and Zero entered the room. The first thing they noticed was Zero grumbling curses in twelve different languages and his hand firmly planted on his Z-Saber. "Now Zero we need her in order to help Axl, so please try and restrain yourself", the Commander said.

Zero's left eye started to twitch rapidly and Pallette heard him mutter something about women being 'evil, petty, and vindictive'. The door started to open and both men turned to the door. The two navigators watched as a young human woman walked into the room. _"This is the person that built my Axl?",_ the youngest blonde thought.

The woman had short brown hair and blue eyes. Her build was thin, but athletic none the less. "Well let's get started shall we?", she said. Looking over to Zero she gave an innocent smile and said, "Go bring the crates in here so that I can begin working...Good puppy." To make Zero's humiliation even worse she patted him on the head before walking over to Axl's sleeping form.

Zero extended the blade on his Z-Saber and from the look in his eyes he was desperately wanting to slice the 'Doctor from Hell' to pieces. _"Curse you lady. If it wasn't for the 'Three Laws' embedded in my cranium..."_ This was one of those times when the swordsman wished that he hadn't allowed the 'Three Laws' to be put back into his programming that way he could hurt the doctor.

Signas and the two Navigators knew better than to say anything or even smirk for that matter while the Hunter's eyes were screaming with a desire to beat something to a bloody pulp. Eventually Zero left to the room to retrieve the containers Denise needed and X took the opportunity to enter the room.

Spotting the doctor he walked over to her and said, "Who are you really?"

Denise looked up at him with a confused look on her face and asked, "What do you mean? Oh...I'm Dr. Denise Wildman. Nice to meet you X." She then started looking over the charts Alia had printed out on Axl's current state. Before she could turn the page a strong hand grabbed her's causing her to lock eyes with X once more. "Now what?"

The blue reploid moved his head in closer and informed her, "There is no record of a Denise Wildman anywhere in the system. And don't tell me that we don't keep good records because I know for a fact that we do."

Denise showed no emotion on her face when X made the accusation, but inside she was smirking at him. "I can't help what you can and can't find. Now if you'll excuse me I need to do what I can for Axl." She shoved her way past him as Zero re-entered the room lugging two crates. Dr. Wildman looked at him strangely and asked, "Is that all you can carry in one load?"

The swordsman dropped the containers and shouted, "That's it! Alia remove the 'Three Laws' from my systems now!" Said Reploid hid behind Commander Signas and Pallette. X watched horrified as the doctor laughed away Zero's threat and picked up the containers. Zero had had enough of this woman and snatched out his Z-Saber once more, "Lady you could drive someone to drinking or at the very least murder."

"Welcome to my world.", a familiar voice spoke. Everyone turned their attention to the source and found Axl watching the fight between his creator and his close friend.

Denise walked over to the teen and asked, "How have they been treating you? Well I hope." She turned a glare at the other Hunters and then started looking over her creation.

Zero and X were both thinking, _"Talk about mood swings. One minute she's deliberately provoking Zero and the next she's an 'overprotective mother'."_ Accurate to their analysis she was checking over Axl not just as a scientist, but as a mother figure as well.

Eventually all of Denise's equipment had been brought into the infirmary most of which was equipment that only government agents should have access to and was completely illegal for civilians to possess. The doctor got Axl to tell her all about everything he's been through since he'd left her years ago. Axl covered his time in 'Red Alert' to his present job as a Maverick Hunter.

Denise had always treated Axl as though he were her own son since she didn't have one of her own. Axl always avoided mentioning children around her because he knew that she couldn't have children on her own. When he'd first been brought on line as a Reploid she had told him about how an accident had damaged her body leaving her unable to conceive a child, so Axl had tried to fill that gap in her life.

The teen knew that Denise Wildman wasn't her real name, but stuck with her alias to help protect her. She wasn't wanted for any crimes though after the equipment she brought in she might be, but a lot of people out there would kill to get their hands on a genius of her caliber. _"I'll protect you always...Makoto Aoki."__

* * *

_

After several hours of testing Denise had finished her tests with help from Alia. The doctor called the Hunters back into the room and explained what was going on, "Nothing is wrong with Axl. He's going to be fine."

Zero still uncertain asked, "Then why is his armor changing color like that?" His feelings were echoed by everyone in the room except for Axl and Denise.

The scientist brought a diagram of Axl and showed them several black boxes that had been found during Axl's routine maintenance, "These are the cause for the change in Axl's appearance."

Alia understood more about what was being seen than almost everyone else in the room and still she couldn't figure out what she was looking at exactly. Pallette had slipped by the rest and was holding Axl's hand which didn't escape the notice of Ms. Wildman.

"As you are all aware by now Axl is a completely New Generation in Reploid designs. He's the most advanced Reploid ever built and I dare say even better designed than X over there.", Denise said motioning towards X.

The blue Reploid felt offended that this woman thought she could do a better job than Dr. Light, so he challenged her bold statements. It didn't end so well for X as the young woman started pointing out every flaw Dr. Light had missed and how she had fixed all those problems with Axl.

Signas eventually reminded them all the he currently held the most advanced processor amongst all Reploids, but was quickly shot down when Denise said, "You mean you did have the most advanced processor. Axl's can handle ten times the workload yours can and in half the time." To further prove her point she showed them the design for the processor.

Signas recognized the design immediately, "This processor is still in the experimental stages and only government agencies should even know that it exists. How did you get your hands on it?" The Commander wasn't about to let this woman leave until he got answers and the two best Hunters were determined to help.

X and Zero surrounded the scientist as she went on to explain the changes in Axl's armor, "You see when I developed Axl I gave him numerous abilities that your 'New Generation Reploids' didn't possess. For example he has the ability to self regenerate using advanced nanomachine colonies and he also possesses the ability to self evolve. That is what's happening right now." Denise looked over to the Commander and said, "From what Alia told me he was attacked using a viral weapon, so Axl's systems are evolving his body to prevent another attack of that nature."

Everyone was shocked to hear this even the evolving Reploid had difficulties accepting his new look. The teen managed to get up the courage to ask, "Will I be able to change my appearance back to my black armor or will I be stuck in this white one?"

Dr. Wildman shook her head and replied, "I don't know yet. At this point it can go either way, but regardless of what you look like your still my little boy."

The occupants in the room shared confused looks before the evolving hunter spoke up, "Don't look at her like that guys. Since I was brought on line she's always treated me as though I were her own son."

There was a collective, "Oh." and then Signas remembered the processor and equipment. "Now Dr. Wildman you are going to tell us how you got your hands on the equipment and processor."

She looked at the Commander and said quite simply, "I came up with the idea for the processor and the equipment was bought through private channels. I've even got the permits to have all of it." She pulled out the documents and sure enough she was licensed to have all the equipment though to most of them it didn't make sense that a civilian would have these kind of toys.

* * *

Later on in Zero's quarters X and Alia showed up with concerns for their new guest. Truth is that the swordsman didn't like or trust her either, but for Axl he'd try to tolerate her.

The discussion went on for several minutes and eventually they agreed that Zero would find out what he could for the young Hunter and Alia would search through the records for anything she missed.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 5

In the early morning hours while the medical wing was still basically empty Zero slipped into Axl's room to check up on him. "Hey Axl! Are you awake?", he whispered.

"...well I wasn't. Zero what the hell are you doing here this early in the morning?", the younger Reploid growled back.

_"Guess Lan still isn't a morning person...I don't remember MegaMan saying that his brother was this grouchy in the morning."_ The red reploid said, "Sorry. I just wanted to come by and talk to you in private."

The patient lifted his head so that he could see Zero and instantly knew what it was that he really wanted to talk about. Of course he knew he could trust Zer-...Chaud, but the question was did he really want to. "This is about Denise isn't it?" He saw the swordsman nod and waited for his to elaborate further. Several seconds past and Zero made no further comments which pissed Axl off, "WELL!"

Hearing his friend shout Zero looked at the now mostly white Reploid, "Sorry. I just want to know if you know who she really is and whether or not she's dangerous." He was certain that even if she was dangerous the teen would have kept her around anyways because he was just a sucker for people living difficult lives. _"A good trait though I hope that it doesn't get him killed one of these days."_

Axl sighed and decided how much he would say, "She was a brilliant scientist years ago, but she left the service of the government for...personal reasons." Locking eyes with the other hunter he went on, "She's not a threat to good people...in truth she's like a female version of...Papa now that I think about it."

The swordsman shot the younger Reploid a shocked and somewhat confused look before regaining his usual expression. "I need to know why she left and who she really is Axl." He waited for several minutes before trying again, "Lan please. Tell me what you know about her."

Hearing his real name called made it difficult to sustain his resolve, but he was still an Hikari which meant he was could be really difficult if he wanted to. _"That's the thing about us Hikaris...we are all extremely stubborn."_

Before the red hunter could try again a voice from the office that Zero had neglected to check spoke, "So you know who Axl really is then? Did he tell you? Or did you find out through some other means?" The lights flickered on and he looked to see Dr. Wildman standing in the open door to the small office in the corner of the room.

Resting his hand on his Z-Saber Zero replied in an icy tone, "Yes, I know who Axl really is...or should I say what he was."

Axl rolled his eyes at the swordsman's temper before lying back down on the bed to listen to what was going to happen.

Denise thought it was amusing that Zero always grabbed his sword when she entered a room and quite often she heard him refer to her as 'the evil bitch monster of death'. "I'm going to make a few guesses here...", she said watching the Reploid nod for her to continue, "...You've known Axl since before he became what he is. You take care of his as though he's your best friend."

Zero said sarcastically, "Right on all counts. Damn your good. Bet you could pick the winning lottery numbers too."

The hunter was about to leave when Denise said, "...You were also human too."

He turned around surprised that she had figured him out and demanded, "How did you know that?" Zero looked over to Axl who shook his head no at the unspoken question, then turned back to Denise.

She smiled sadly at the swordsman and said, "I can tell by the way that you act and by the way your body moves." Seeing the uncertainty in Reploid's body language she elaborated, "Normal Reploids...even ones like X behave differently than you two do. Also their bodies move differently and for a doctor such as myself the ever so slight differences can be easily seen once you know what to look for."

"I take it you've seen this kinda thing happen a lot before then?", he asked curiously.

The doctor confirmed his assumption, "Yes. It's only be done a few times throughout history, but it has been done." She moved over to the bed across from Axl and Zero then sat down on it. "In the last decade or so it was made illegal because of morality issues even though it can obviously be used to save lives." Denise sighed and looked Zero right in the eyes, "My real name...I'm not going to tell you, but I will say that after what Lan told me about how the two of you got here I may have come up with a way to send the two of you home."

Both hunters perked up and eagerly asked, "We have a way to go back home?"

Shaking her head Dr. Wildman said, "No not yet. I just need a single missing component and then we can test the device." Zero inquired what part they need and she replied, "It's a special field generator that can only be found in 'The Lost Grounds'."

The swordsman immediately knew where she was referring and thought, _"Oh crap! That place has been completely taken over by Mavericks and we've yet to be able to deal with the problem without causing even greater damage than leaving them alone."_ Refusing to give into defeat he asked, "Isn't there some other place you can get the part from?"

"No I can't. The Lost Grounds is the only place on Earth where the rare metal forms that is used in it's construction and when the Mavericks took over that place none of the generators could leave the plants. To top it all off the others that were already out here were destroyed in one of the last Maverick uprisings.", she informed him grimly. With a look of determination she perked up and said, "Don't you worry so much. We'll find a way to get the part and send the both of you back to your home."

Axl looked at Denise with watery eyes, "You mean I'll never be able to see you again..." The teen's voice had cracked a few times and he was dangerously close to crying.

Dr. Wildman closed here eyes and thought up a solution, "No Axl you won't...that is you won't be that separated from me." At his look of confusion she said, "I'm going to go to your world with you and stay there."

Quickly the boy wiped away the stray tear and went to thank her when both heard Zero say, "Oh hell. I'm stuck with her." They both looked at the red hunter as he turned his head up towards the ceiling and asked, "God, What did I do to deserve this?"

Axl snickered while Denise smirked and began playing with her glasses. Axl looked at the doctor and said, "I bet it has something to do with those pictures in his office under the the bottom drawer on the right side of his desk." Zero's eyes widened and he slapped his hand over the younger boy's mouth to prevent him from finishing that sentence.

_"Lan I swear I will kill you if you tell anyone else about those pictures of Yai!"_, Zero thought as he glared into the face of his traitorous little friend.

Denise then began going over the specifics of the device she would need to get them home and the hunter memorized every detail bar her occasional insults directed at him.

Before he left to try to steal one of the generators from the Mavericks Zero asked the doctor why she left the service of the government and now lived in seclusion. She replied, "Years ago one of my inventions that was created to save Reploid lives was...perverted into a the first Reploid Killer class virus. I tried to stop it, but 'they' prevented me from interfering. As a result of that virus over 2,198 Reploids were killed without mercy or reason."

The swordsman had been on the receiving end of such prejudices before when around humans, but he never suspected that his own government would have done something so cruel to so many of his kind. The more he thought about it the more the whole cover story about an terrorist attack seemed far less plausible when he thought of all the strange agents that had been sent to clean up thee mess. _"I don't blame her for leaving them. And to think some of those that died were originally human like myself. No matter how you spin it murder is still murder regardless of what you are."

* * *

_

Back in Dentech city MegaMan was searching desperately to try and find the whereabouts of the traitorous navi that took his twin brother from him. _"Where are you hiding Dark Protoman?"_

"Looking for someone?", a voice called from above.

Diverting his gaze upward Mega spotted the Darkloid standing on the roof of the small building nearby. "I finally found you.", the angry navi said happily.

Laughing Dark Protoman brought out his sword and countered, "Did you really find me? Or did I find you?" Jumping from the roof and slashing at the spot where MegaMan was the red navi attempted to cripple his former ally. Just barely missing the blue navi the Darkloid hissed, "Funny how Lan and Chaud ran away too...just before they died that is."

MegaMan knew that the other navi was just trying to upset him and to be honest if he didn't have excellent self control thanks to all the time he spent with Lan he would have slipped up then and there. "Not falling for it Dark Protoman. My NetOp and yours never ran away from a fight."

Growling Protoman launched some of his dark aura at Mega and shouted, "That weakling is no longer my NetOp! I'm not the same weak navi I used to be!"

The aura exploded around the now solo navi and threw him into the a nearby wall. Lifting his head he said, "Hurts doesn't it to know that you were weak enough to allow Nebula to control you. Weak enough to allow Regal to force you to kill your own NetOp and best friend." MegaMan scoffed and went on, "And you call yourself strong. Anyone can give into the darkness, but it takes a truly powerful navi to resist it."

Narrow his eyes Protoman struck again, but this time more wildly than before. "Blah, blah, blah. I am strong. And if you don't believe me then why are you the one about to be deleted?"

Chuckling softly MegaMan said, "I'm not." Before the Darkloid could finish the deed the blue navi called out for a previously unseen double soul, "Bass Soul, Double Soul!"

Dark Protoman's eyes widen under his visor as a bright gold light engulfed his enemy and lifted itself up into the air. The light swirled around for a few seconds before revealing the new MegaMan. His armor, helmet, and boots looked exactly the same as the human hating Bass, but instead Bass's symbol there was the Hikari family crest worn by a navi with emerald green eyes. "Now what was that about power?..."

The red navi struck as B MegaMan, but didn't expect the smaller navi to catch the blade in one hand and break it effortlessly. It didn't look good for Dark Protoman and he knew it, but he wasn't about to let his old rival beat so easily. "So you got Bass to give you some of his data. I'm surprised that he of all navi's would help you. What did you do? Beg?"

Narrow his eyes B MegaMan started throwing blades of energy at the Darkloid and for the most part Protoman dodged them, but several of them left small gashes in his armor. "The one that will be begging is you. But I will admit that it was odd that Bass just showed up out of nowhere and used some of his data to create this new Double Soul. When I asked why he replied, 'Lets just say I have an interest in keeping you around just a little bit longer.'"

Protoman figured that Bass just didn't want to lose his chance to take MegaMan's ultimate program and gave him the power boost to prevent his deletion. Or perhaps the data was spiked with some kind of Trojan Horse that Bass would use to disable MegaMan once he was ready to absorb his program. Snapping out of the distraction the Darkloid looked just in time to see a blade hit his leg disabling him.

B MegaMan walked towards Protoman slowly enjoying the feel of control over the navi that killed his brother. He knew he should feel ashamed that he was enjoying having the power of Life and Death over Dark Protoman, but he felt nothing except the desire to cause the red navi pain. Putting his hands together he shouted, "Darkness Over-"

Unfortunately Dark Protoman realized exactly what move he was about to experience and chose instead to log out. _"Damn you MegaMan. I'll find a way around your Double Soul and then you will beg for deletion."_

"So he got away...", a cloaked navi said as he came out of the shadows.

Not even glancing back B MegaMan asked, "What are you doing here Bass?"

"I just came here to see how you were using...my gift.", he said smugly. He enjoyed showing Mega the darkness contained within his own heart and this was an easy way to do just that.

"Don't concern yourself with it. Nebula and Dark Protoman are mine!", MegaMan informed just before logging out.

_"The more you let your hatred consume you the easier it will be to claim my prize in the end. So keep on attacking Nebula's Darkloids and collecting their data. In the end all of that data will be mine...and so will you."

* * *

_

With the hunter's the teenage Reploid Axl had managed to fall asleep, but to Denise surprise the boy was now squirming and muttering the name Dar- Pr-toma-. _"I wonder who that is."_ Feeling the need to do something she shook Axl just enough to wake him up. "Are you ok? What was the nightmare about?", she asked intently.

The young Reploid wiped the sweat from his face and said, "I don't really know." He looked her in the eyes so that she could see that he honestly didn't know before he filled in the blanks, "I just know that I felt something...something incredibly evil just now."

Attempting to lighten the mood Denise remarked, "It was probably that horrible hospital food that Alia gave you earlier. I told you I'd get you something else if you wanted it."

Placing his cold metal hand on his forehead Axl replied, "But if you had it would have been health foods since I'm in here. I remember how you act...and I'm glad I...have a mother here." He smiled and removed his hand so that she could see it.

Dr. Wildman hugged him and thanked him for being her little boy. She was sure that if she ever could have children that she'd want them to be just like the boy in arms right now.

"Where's Zero?", he asked noticing the absence of the red Hunter.

Still holding onto Axl Denise said, "He went to 'The Lost Grounds' to get the generator." The young Reploid tried to move out of the bed, but she stopped him. "Don't worry Axl. You of all people know how good Zero can be at breaking into a heavily guarded facility and getting out with cargo alive."

Giving her a terrified look he asked, "Please tell me that you did not subject him to your lab's defenses." Axl really didn't like the smile that popped on her face, but was relieved when she said that she didn't feel like being that evil. "The only thing that's missing is nukes...", he muttered before lying back down.

Dr. Wildman ran her scans on Axl before saying, "Well...it seems that it's finally over. Your evolution seems to be complete, but you still need to rest a little. Ok?" Axl smiled and nodded before closing his eyes to go back to sleep. As Dr. Wildman started to left the room she informed her 'son', "I also lied by the way. The generator can also be found in one of X's weapons. Remember the Squeeze Bomb he got when you all destroyed Gravity Antonion?"

Shooting up Axl said, "You mean to tell me that you sent Zero to **THAT** place knowing the he's going to get the crap beat out of him for a component that you've actually already got hear? Why?"

Denise knew that her 'son' couldn't see her since she was on the other side of the door, but she answered anyways, "I just felt the need to punish him for that 'evil bitch monster of death' comment. He won't be killed or anything...just sore...and pissed." She laughed as she shut the door and went back to the temporary lab she'd been given.

_"Oh dear God...he's going to be incredibly pissed when he gets back."_, Axl cringed thinking of how Zero was going to, probably literally, explode when he found out what Denise had pulled.

* * *

X watched as Dr. Wildman used a weapon he'd picked up during the last Uprising to build a device to send Axl and Zero home. Truth is that he was shocked beyond words when he'd found out that the two other Hunters had once been human and he did have to admit that he was a little envious of them. "So when it going to be finished?", he asked.

Denise looked over her back at the Hunter and said, "Probably about another two to three hours and it'll be ready for testing. I got lucky that Lan's original body made it easy to identify the correct world to send them to."

Curiosity got the better of X and he asked, "How? And why do you still have Ax- Lan's body?"

The doctor gave an embarrassed look and said, "I kept his body frozen just in case it could be used later on for just such a thing. And his body has a unique energy that appears in his home dimension, so all I have to do is scan for the right signature and they can go back."

"Oh.", was the only intelligent response that the Hunter could give. _"The question is do I really want them to go back. I'll be here alone and have to fight the Mavericks all by myself. No, I shouldn't try to force them to stay. I should be happy for them...even though it hurts to lose such good friends and warriors."_

The doctor stopped what she was doing and turned to X with a serious expression on her face, "Thank you X for agreeing to keep this a secret...about Axl and Zero that is and especially forhelping them get home."

Giving her a guine smile X replied, "I'm just glad I could help the two of them. I am also greatful that you told me that they were once human." Scratching the side of his head he went on, "Now thatI think about there were little things about those two that stood out, but I just brushed it off as paranoia or something."

"Who knows perhaps you could go with us.", she said absent mindedly.

The Hunter countered, "I can't do that as long as Mavericks exist here."

The doctor replied, "The remaining Mavericks are easy for the other Hunter Units to take on now that Lumine and Sigma are gone. You can leave, you just don't want to."

X thought about what she said and had to agree with her analysis of himself. _"Perhaps they might want me to travel with them?"_


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 6

In the early morning hours Axl slipped from his bed in the infirmary. Checking to make sure no one had heard him loosening the vent covers the young Reploid crawled into the ventilation system. Once inside he pulled up a detailed schematic of the vent using his remote access the building's mainframe.

Eventually the young Reploid made it out of the medical wing and approached a vent cover. He waited a few minutes and listened to see if anyone was there or was coming. Fortunately before he tried to open the vent he heard a familiar voice, "Ouch...that damned doctor better be able to make this work."

From inside the ventilation system Axl could see the red Hunter's current condition and he didn't look so hot. Zero had large chunks of armor missing, his blonde hair had obviously been singed by an energy weapon of some kind, and...he had a hole over his rear. Axl had a hard time not giving in to the desire to fall apart laughing at his fellow Hunter and thought, _"Poor guy got shot in the ass. Now this is a Kodak moment...and an excellent opportunity for some blackmail material."_

Using his optical circuits the teen took several pictures of the swordsman with every intention of giving them to Denise. _"He is going to go postal when she flashes these in his face."_

As the red Hunter set his Z-Saber on a desk to be repaired he had the strangest feeling that he was being watched. Glancing around the room examining everything with a sharp eye turned up nothing, "Now to get the generator to Dr. Wildman..."

Once Zero had left the room Axl looked around the room some more to realize that this was one of the armorys. That worked for him since he'd removed the screws from the vents in all of them for just such an occasion, not that Zero or X knew anything about this. Carefully he removed the vent cover and crawled out into the room. He then replaced the cover and taking nothing to chance he shifted into the form of one of the trainees he seen pass by his room.

The young Reploid was determined to see his rival's reaction whenever he found out that Denise had sent him on a fool's errand. He opened the door to the room and stuck his head out quick enough to survey the hallways. Feeling confident that nobody was there he started walking through the corridors until he reached Dr. Wildman's temporary lab.

Before Axl could reach the door he heard Zero shouting, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T NEED THE GENERATOR! YOU SWORE THAT YOU NEEDED THIS DAMNED THING!"

He cringed trying to picture the look on his friend's face, but he also knew that Denise was about to add fuel to that fire when she explained why she didn't need the part Zero had fought for.

Denise said all too sweetly, "Well...while you were gone I found one...on base"

"Where could you have possibly found one of those here?", the red Reploid growled at her. He was having a hard time dealing with this woman and he could feel his eyebrows twitching mercilessly.

Smiling at the angry Reploid Dr. Wildman answered, "I found one in one of X's weapons. The generator has already been put to use and we are just about ready for the first test."

Looking back up from her notes she found the room empty and the door still hanging open. She got out of her chair and walked to the door to find a trainee pointing in the opposite direction. Turning her head she saw Zero heading towards X's quarters and felt guilty when she realized what he was going to do, but she also had to cover her mouth to stop from laughing when she noticed a particular piece of Zero's armor missing.

"Yeah. I saw that too, Makoto.", the trainee said while whispering the name.

Denise turned her head to the trainee surprised that the young boy had known her real name before she figured out why, "Now how did you escape Alia this time Axl?"

Grinning mischievously he answer, "I had Pallette arrange a date between X and Alia, so Zero shouldn't be able to find him and kill him just yet." Pausing for a second apparently deep in thought the teen said, "Speaking of Zero I got some pictures you can torture him with."

The doctor grinned back at her accomplice in pranks and said, "Of his...current predicament I take it." When Axl nodded she turned her head back in Zero's general direction and her smile got even bigger, "Now how would be the best way to do this I wonder."

* * *

As X's and Alia's date was coming to an end the two of them walked back to Alia's quarters. The first thing they both notice is a furious Zero walking towards them and X tries to say, "Zero? What's..."

The other Hunter doesn't let the blue Reploid get far before punching him hard right in the stomach. The swordsman barks, "Now why didn't you tell me you had that blasted generator in one of your weapons?"

Alia's date recovers enough to say, "I didn't know you need one..." Still trying to catch his breath the older Reploid leans up against the wall and continues, "I didn't find out until Dr. Wildman asked me for it." X looked at Zero and heard him mutter an apology before walking off.

The navigator starts assessing the damage to her date and asks, "What was that all about?"

The Hunter replied, "Denise pissing Zero off again. Why did she have to bring me into it this time?"

Alia laughs and responds, "I don't know, but I can tell you that the next time Zero needs repairs I'm going to 'forget' to give him anything for the pain."

The Hunter looks up at her before she gives him a quick kiss on the cheek and tries to walk off. X grabs her and locks lips with Alia trying to show her just how much he really cares.

She was certain that if she were human her face would be as red as Zero's armor at this point, but another part of her chose to throw caution to the wind and take a chance with X. Alia pulled from the kiss reluctantly and led X into her room where she had every intention of playing 'doctor'.

* * *

On the way to Dr. Wildman's lab Zero thought it best to change out of his armor into something more comfortable. After he left his quarters he ran into a few trainees that were giving him funny looks. Brushing them off he deposited his armor in the armory for repair while he resumed his mission to deal with Denise.

He walked by a couple of female navigators that Pallette and Layer had been training the past couple of day and heard one of them whistle at him. Sure he'd dealt with the occasional advance before, but he always turned them down in favor of the purple haired Navigator Layer.

As he continued to walk he received more looks, whistling, and now a few kisses blown his way. _"What in the world is going on today?"_, he thought as he caught sight of a fuming Layer heading his way. Before he could ask how she was doing she slapped him hard, "What was that for!"

Refusing to answer she lifted a sheet of paper she had in her hands wanting him to look at it. He did so and found several pictures of someone's rear and...HIS RED ARMOR. _"Oh no! Don't tell me these are all over the base."_ Looking over the picture again it looked almost as though he had modeled for them, but he knew that he would never degrade himself like that. "Layer look I didn't know anything about these...", he said trying to calm her down.

After several attempts she finally gave him the benefit of the doubt, "So who did make them then?"

He answered angrily, "I don't know, but I have a very good idea." He started walking to the lab again only this time much faster and with Layer in tow.

* * *

Wildman had led her 'son' back to the medical wing with some resistance on his part to run a few quick tests on him. She found a new program that had apparently inserted itself after Axl's evolution and accessed it to find out what it was. She couldn't figure out what it was, so to be on the safe side she shut the program down. The moment the shutdown began Axl was engulfed in a bright blue light. _"What's going on? I hope I didn't just hurt Axl."_

Once the light died down the teen looked at his familiar black armor, "Alright I'm back!" He hugged himself and started saying, "Oh I love you my precious black armor. I'll never let anyone take you away from me again."

Denise was highly amused at her son's behavior, but she couldn't really blame him. After all he'd spent years getting used to that armor after he'd became a Reploid, so naturally he'd feel the most comfortable in that armor. Turning her attention back to the program she spent several more minutes trying to understand how it worked when her 'puppy' broke threw the door. "Couldn't use the key pad like everyone else?", she asked calmly.

The teen reploid was thinking, _"Oh God, he found out about the generator already."_

"Don't worry about the stupid door. Explain this", Zero barked shoving the paper into Dr Wildman's hands.

Denise looked it over making it seem as though she'd just seen it for the first time. The doctor looked back at the Hunter and the navigator nodding in approval, "Not bad Zero. You don't look half bad like this." Then to bait the swordsman further she said, "I never knew you were into modeling."

Axl couldn't believe she was doing him like this, but knew better than to say anything. Layer wasn't really sure whether the doctor was behind this or not while Zero was absolutely certain that evil woman was behind this latest insult to himself.

About this time Layer looked over at Axl, "When did your armor change back?"

Denise smiled and answered, "It just reverted back. I turned off a program inside of him and it caused the change." Looking back at the scans of the program she theorized, "I think that this program acts kind of like a...double soul...or maybe an...armor power up."

Axl's eyes light up and he said, "You mean I can switch between the armors anytime I want! Cool!"

Laughing at her son the doctor continued, "Yes you can. Obviously your white armor is much stronger than the original, but right now I can't really say what all the advancements are. If I could finish my tests I could give you a detailed explanation, but you have to change back to that armor."

Zero knew that she was responsible for the pictures and that she was currently ignoring him while trying to play innocent. He leaned in to the doctor and whispered, "I know this was your doing...and I will prove it." He was unnerved when he received a smirk from her that said, 'We both know that I did that, but you'll never find any proof'. Punching the wall and leaving a deep dent the swordsman walked out of the room intent on some heavy combat training to calm himself down.

The two conspirators watched as the purple haired Reploid left in pursuit of Zero. "Now that was fun.", Denise said once the door shut.

"You'll never change will you?", Axl asked. The doctor nodded and the teen changed subjects, "When will we be able to go home?"

Grinning Dr. Wildman said, "I know I told Zero that I'm almost ready for the first test, but..."

"You've already sent a probe through and know that you can safely transport us all back to my home.", he finished for her. Having spent most of his life in this world with Dr. Wilman he knew that she was never completely forthcoming with anyone except those that she loved like himself.

Looking from the screen to her son Denise said, "We will be ready to go to your world tomorrow at the latest. Right now I suggest you go say your goodbyes to your friends here...especially one in particular." He gave her a confused looked and smiled wickedly, "You know who I'm talking about."

The teen felt his face turn red and responded, "I care about Pallette, but I just...don't know how she'll take it. I don't want to leave her behind." In a pleading voice he asked, "Can we take her with us?"

Against her better judgment Denise agreed, "Perhaps we could take X too?" When Axl asked why his creator told him about how the blue Hunter was feeling about them leaving him. "I guess won't be that bad. Just keep him off my case would ya?"

Dr. Wildman answered, "I'll...see what I can do. You go talk to Pallette and I'll go inform X that he's welcome to come with us. Ok?"

Axl nodded his head and took off out the door intent on finding 'his navigator'. _"My navigator? I wonder where that came from?"_

Denise decided it was best to tell Zero now rather than let Axl tell him. _"It's not like he could get any angrier than he is now."_ The doctor left the medical wing in search of Zero knowing that things were about to get very interesting. She was also glad that her son had agreed to let X come with them since he'd really miss the other two Hunters otherwise. "Now let's see how many passengers I'll be taking with me?", she said as she strolled towards Zero's room.


	7. Rough Night

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 7

Axl woke up with Palette lying right next to him on his couch. At present both Reploids were out of their armors and wearing normal human clothes. "Hey Palette. Wake up, it's time to go check on Denise.", he said watching the blonde fight to gain '5 more minutes.'

Knowing how much he always enjoyed having those extra few minutes sleep, which in his case always managed to turn into a few hours, Axl allowed her to go back to sleep. _"I finally get to go home today. I wonder what's changed since I disappeared?"_, he thought as he wiggled loose from his girlfriend's iron grip. For someone so small her grip reminded him a lot of Zero's when he'd arrested Axl when they'd first met in this world. Shrugging it off the teen went searching for his 'mother' and his best friend Zero.

He checked the Medical Wing first figuring she would be in there. Approaching Alia he asked, "Have you seen Denise or Zero anywhere?" The blue haired navigator shook her head and suggested that he 'try the labs'. When he reached the door he thought of something and asked, "Alia, are you going to come with us?"

The navigator looked up from her work and offered a sad smile, "I'm sorry Axl, but I just can't. I don't have a place in your world and unlike X I'm not an adventurer." She truly did want to go, but her fear of the unknown kept her doing so. "Thank you for the offer though and good luck.", she said turning back to medical forms.

The teen left the Medical Wing and walked straight over to the Research Labs where he hoped he would find Dr. Wildman. Greeting some of the worker bots as he entered the restricted areas the black Reploid made his way to his creator's temporary lab where she'd told him the device had been placed.

Taking a deep breath Axl entered the lab to see a web of wires and cables strung out everywhere. What must have been the power cables ran into a platform in the middle of the room and the surface was glowing a gentle green. _"So this mess is supposed to take us home. Where's the generator I wonder?"_ The excited youth search the lab over several times before opening a small door on the platform. Right inside just under the surface was the component Denise had taken from X's Squeeze Bomb. _"So that's where it is."_

Looking around once more he found no sign that either of the two he was searching for had been here recently, so he closed the door on the platform and left. _"I guess I'll try their quarters."_, he thought to himself figuring they must be here unless something had happened to them. Outside Zero's door he found Palette walking towards him. "Why did you let me sleep in? We are going together, right?", she asked sounding worried that he was having second thoughts about taking her with him.

Smiling Axl tried to soothe her fears away, "Yes, we are going together. I just have to find Denise and Zero first."

The young navigator immediately felt better and it showed on her facial expression. "Well shouldn't you have checked their quarters first?"

"No.", he simply stated. "Zero's only in his room when he's resting between missions and Denise sleeps in the lab. The only time I ever got her to stay in her own bed was when she was she was sick and too drugged up to move."

Both of them started laughing at that thought as Axl opened the door to Zero's room. Palette noticed something strange and asked, "Was that a security override code I saw you enter?"

Cursing himself for not thinking before he acted he said sheepishly, "Well...yeah...I...I...borrowed it. Yes, that's what I did. I borrowed the code...without Signas knowledge." He gave her a pleading look that said 'Please don't tell anyone?'

The navigator smiled and moved her face to inches from his own. "I won't tell a soul."

Axl went to thank her and looked into Zero's room, "Thanks for not...OH MY GOD!" The Reploid quickly turned his head away with his face as red as Zero's armor.

Palette was confused and curious as to what made her Axl shout and turned to see something she had never expected to see in her lifetime. There on top of Zero's bed was the Red Hunter on top of a VERY PISSED OFF Denise.

"GET...THIS...DAMNED...MINDLESS...ATOMITON...OFF...OF...ME...NOW!", the doctor said stressing how furious she was in each word.

As the two young lovers stood there in shock at the scene before them Denise grabbed Zero's alarm clock and chucked it at Axl. "GET HIM OFF!", she demanded.

Snapping out of his shock the young Reploid ran over next to her and started trying to pry Zero off of her. The first thing he noticed was the strong stench of alcohol coming from the swordsman and the second thing was the way he was holding Denise even thought he was clearly sleeping it off. It was the way one would hold their lover rather than someone you despised with all your soul. Zero muttered something and Axl moved his head closer to hear it, "Give me a kiss sweety." As soon as the word left the Hunter's mouth he locked lips with Denise shoving his tongue down her throat despite her protests.

The two younger Reploids eyes bugged out and they were hard pressed to contain their laughter seeing the look Dr. Wildman had on her face when he pulled and started snuggling up on her neck.

Sputtering indignantly Denise renewed her efforts to throw the Reploid off of her and failed to do so. Turning bloodshot eyes towards her 'son' she shouted, "GET THIS BASTARD OFF OF ME BEFORE HE DOES THAT AGAIN!"

Wasting no more time Palette and Axl both started trying to pry the Hunter off the doctor. Little did Dr. Wildman know, but Axl had made a recording of the entire event using his own internal systems as he did with Zero yesterday. After several failed attempts Palette walked in the bathroom and turned on the water instantly alerting the other two to her course of action.

Normally Dr. Wildman would have objected, but given the forced kiss she just received she was willing to do anything to get away from Zero. "DO IT! COME ON, COME ON ALREADY!"

The navigator came back in the room holding a small thrash bin filled my cold water. "Here goes nothing.", she said as she emptied the bin's contents on the doctor and Hunter.

Icey blue eyes shot open and greet a lighter shade of blue mixed with red at present. Zero took a few minutes to process the doctor's presence and finally he noticed the position they were in. "What the Hell?", he shouted leaping off of her.

Taking advantage of her new found freedom Denise made tracks straight for the door after kneeing Zero where it hurts. "Don't even dream about me like that again or you'll get it worse next time.", she said with her temper flaring to dangerous levels.

When she was gone Axl relayed the events to Zero and the Hunter was far from pleased. In fact he went straight to his bathroom and pulled out the really strong Listerine. Forcing the awful liquid into his mouth the swordsman repeated the process several times before he came out, "When we get home if you repeat what happened to anyone...I'll slice your head off."

Zero, Axl, and Palette went to get X so that they could make final preparations to go home. _"Won't be much longer now."_, Axl thought as they on their way.

* * *

In the lab Denise was typing furiously remembering the kiss. She could still taste the foul liquid Zero had consumed the previous night. _"This is the last time I do a good deed. I go to tell the guy that they're going home and not only do I find him drunk, but that...that bastard passes out on top of me. Then if my humiliation has been enough he 'frenched' me right there in front of my son."_

She looked at the extra gravity generator Zero had retrieved and a horrible idea began forming in her mind. "Oh yes. Revenge will be sweet.", she said as she went to work on a quick pet project of her's.

* * *

Axl and Zero finally found X in Alia's quarters saying their goodbyes. It was so heartwarming that Zero was begging with Axl to 'shoot him now and get it over with.'

"X we should get going. We still need to say goodbye to Signas.", said the 'Next Generation' Reploid. While even he didn't like seeing so many tears he knew that the Blue Hunter had already made his decision to leave. "You sure you don't want to stay behind with her X? I mean I don't mind having you come along, but I don't want you to give up your chance with her."

Said Hunter looked at the smaller boy and shook his head, "You don't have to lie to me Axl. I know you don't like me or my views of the world."

Insulted by X's word Axl punched him one good time and started barking, "It's true I don't particularly like you all that much...but you and Zero have always been my heroes growing up." Refusing to meet the swordsman eye for eye the orange haired Reploid chose instead to stare at X. "It's not that I don't like you actually so much as it's that I don't like your attitude towards me. I know fighting isn't a game and that people get hurt, but at the same time we are preventing an even greater number of people from feeling that pain. Your a good person X...and a good heart." Axl extended his hand in invitation for X to follow or stay behind.

Understanding finally dawned on the Blue Bomber as the teenager's words finally reached him. _"Your right Axl. And I thank for that and the gift of your friendship."_ Accepting the hand the Hunter replied, "Well let's go inform Signas of our departure." Taking one last look at Alia he said, "I'll always love. Don't forget me."

Alia heard him and nodded before the three Hunters left for C&C (Command & Control room). _"Good luck X. Something tells me your going to need it."

* * *

_

Meanwhile in the Cyber World B-MegaMan had found a small gathering of Darkloids loyal to Nebula. _"So Regal has started reviving Darkloids has he? No matter, I'll delete them all in just a couple of minutes flat."_

Down below stood a resurrected Beastman standing next to Burnerman and Gravityman. "How much longer until we can finally tear those filthy humans apart? I'm sick of waiting.", said Beastman annoyed with Nebula throwing it's punches.

Burnerman punched him on the head and shouted, "IDIOT! We can't do anything until Dr. Regal can repair Dark Protoman. If we do anything before that then whoever nearly deleted him will do the same to us." The fire navi spotted a mettaur virus walking around their hideout and deleted it in a vain attempt to dull his boredom. "Besides the doctor wants to know who has that kinda power in the first place. Whoever it is Regal wants us to capture them so that he can infect them with a darkchip and make them loyal to Nebula."

"We don't need some outsider.", Beastman protested swinging his claws around. "We can take the human world without their assistance." Letting his foolish pride get the better of him the navi said, "Unlike Dark Protoman I could take this new navi and I'd come out of it with no injuries unlike the other guy."

"You really think so do you", spoke a new voice full of venom.

The Darkloids started frantically searching for the source of the voice, but all they found was empty cyber space. "Come out and fight ya big sissy.", taunted Burnerman trying to regain some of his bravado. Before he knew what happened something kicked him in the back sending him flying several feet away, but the weird part is that when they all looked at the place where he'd been they saw nothing.

Getting up Burnerman called out, "That was a cheap shot. Come out and face me like a real navi." Sneering he added, "If you have the courage that is."

"How foolish. Throwing your life away...again.", the voice said with amusement clearly evident in his voice. In the distance a shadow appeared before them and the Darkloids immediately knew that this was the navi that Regal was after.

"So your the pipsqueak Regal wants?", Beastman growled flexing his claws.

"If your referring to the navi the almost deleted Dark Protoman then yes, that would be me.", the shadow spoke back.

"I don't care if he wants you. I'LL TEAR YOU APART!", Beastman screamed as he charged the mystery navi. When the navi made no move to leap to safety Beastman threw his claws at the navi.

What surprised them however is that the navi caught both claws with his bare hands and then threw the navi into the air. Before the growling beast could get the chance to counter several purple buzz saws slice the navi in half deleting him instantly. The shadow turned to the remaining Darkloids and asked, "Do you like my 'Hells Rolling' attack? It's a recent addition."

Burnerman's eyes widened when he got close enough to make out the navi's face in the dim light. _"There's no way. It's impossible for **him** to have that kinda power!"_ Quickly recovering from his surprise he demanded, "How did you get that kind of power...MegaMan?"

Cocking his head to the side with a sadistic smirk on his face B-MegaMan asked, "Now why would you want to know that?" He laughed and then locked eyes with fire navi, "It's not as though either of you are going to make it out of here alive any way."

Gravityman and Burnerman were both pissed at their adversary's self assured attitude. The larger navi said in a monotone voice, "Come with us to meet Dr. Regal and Laserman or the alternative will be unpleasant. Though I prefer the alternative. Ha. Ha. Ha."

B-MegaMan's smile grew wider exposing his teeth, "I prefer the alternative myself." Using his enhanced speed the navi charged the two followers of Nebula.

"Gravity Drive!", said Gravityman launching an enhanced gravity field at the smaller navi. It hit and knocked him into the ground causing the bulking navi to smile.

"Don't be stupid. If it was that easy Dark Protoman wouldn't be in critical conditionright now. He's playing with us.", said Burnerman as he lit up the area surround the black navi. "I'll burn you to a crisp!" He then started forcing the temperature up to around nova levels while screaming out, "THAT'S RIGHT! BURN BABY, BURN!"

_"And I thought this was going to be difficult. How disappointing."_ B-MegaMan used the dark energy from the double soul to snuff the flames out in the blink of an eye, "Parlor tricks won't work on me anymore you fool." Pausing he bent his head down and continued, "However, if you tell me where Regal and Dark Protoman are I might let you live. Your choice...traitor or scrap data."

"No chance!", the smaller of the two Darkloids answered before charging him.

"Big mistake!", called B-MegaMan as he used his new 'Tri Buster' to throw the mouthy navi into his partner. _"This is for you Lan!"_ Grinning from ear to ear as the two navi tried to untangle themselves, "DARKNESS OVERLOAD!" Both corrupted navis screamed in horror as the purple beam engulfed them both. The beam then exploded causing the entire server to collapse in on itself.

**-WARNING SYSTEM CRASH!- -WARNING SYSTEM CRASH!- -WARNING SYSTEM CRASH!-**

MegaMan logged out as the data composing the hideout came unraveled and deleted itself.

* * *

At Sci-Labs Yuuichiro Hikari had picked up the enormous energy that unknown to him his digital son had just unleashed. "Famous tell the Commissioner immediately. If Nebula has a navi with this kind of power we are all in big trouble."

Mr. Famous looked at his friend and asked, "How big of an energy reading did you get?"

Looking grim Dr. Hikari answered, "It set off every sensor we have monitoring the net. The readings were off the scale, my equipment doesn't even go that high."

Catching on to the implications, "That's not very good news. If Nebula's developed a navi like that then we are going to take a couple of bruises along the way." With that the shade sporting programmer exited the room while using his cell to call for Meiru and Laika knowing that the teens would need to do everything they could to stop this new threat.

* * *

With the Hunters Signas had reluctantly accept the resignations of his best men. The Commander escorted the three Hunters and two Navigators to Dr. Wildman's lab, "You sure I can't talk you out of this?"

All three Hunters offered a polite 'no' and the Commander accepted. Upon entering the lab the group, save for Axl, was disturbed to find the mess that was supposed to be their way to Lan's world. Zero caught sight of Denise and looked away which Layer didn't fail to notice.

_"I wonder what that's about?"_, the older Navigator thought to herself seeing her boyfriend react the way he did.

Denise on the other hand gave Zero a smile that spoke of horrible, unspeakable evils that the woman had probably cooked up in the three hours that they had left her alone. Before a fight could break out between the doctor and swordsman X asked Axl, "Is she always this messy."

"Messy yes, but she's the best at what she does. Dr. Wildman was never the superficial type even with her machines.", the teenager answered pulling his bag containing his few belongings over his shoulder. He saw his 'mother' smile at his answer and he in turn smiled back.

Clapping her hands together Denise pulled out a small red gift box and held it out to Zero, "I know what happened last night was...unintended, so here's my peace offering." Giving him her most sincere smile she added, "I saw it earlier when I left the facility and thought of you when I saw it."

Zero never would've accepted the gift if it wasn't for both Axl and Layer elbowing him in the side. "Thanks...I think.", said the Hunter as he cautiously opened the small box. To his surprise the box didn't contain a bomb, but instead inside was a piece of red armor that seemed designed to support the back of the neck.

Layer convinced the swordsman to try it on and reluctantly he did. Unfortunately once it was on the metal extended around his neck forming... _"That damned woman made a dog collar for me!"_

"Sorry Zero, but I won't allow a repeat of last night ever.", she said as the Hunter tried desperately to pull it off. After many failed attempts he demanded she remove it or else... "I can't do that. If someone tries to remove it you'll receive a strong electrical discharge into your artificial pain receptors.", she said before offering her signature smile that told him that he hadn't heard the worst of it, "Sit boy!"

Zero felt a powerful gravity field form around his neck yanking him into the floor. Denise was pleased that she'd gotten her revenge and she told Layer, "It's also setup to work with your voice too. If he gets out of hand don't hit him instead use this."

The navigator thought about it for a second and then said, "Hm...it's not that bad. Every girl should have one of these for her man."

The three former Hunters and Signas began voicing their protests, but they fell on deaf ears.

X asked Axl, "Where does she come up with these things?"

The kid shrugged and replied, "She watched too much InuYasha and fell in love with some prayer beads that force a half-demon to kiss the ground like Zero just did." Axl was embarrassed that his 'mother' went this far and felt really sorry for Zero. _"Sorry man, but I don't think she'll tell even me how to get that thing off after you kissed her like that."_

Dr. Wildman switched the device on and the whole room lit up as the machine started powering up. "In just a few minutes we will be going to your home Axl. Signas could you come here for a moment so I can show you which button to push once the device is ready?"

The Commander walked around to the terminal she was standing at and waited for instructions. When he was standing next to her he said, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you...How was Axl able to hurt the mechanic when the man is human? Shouldn't the 'Three Laws' prevent it."

Denise shrugged and smiled, "Well yes they would..." When she turned back to the machine she finished, "If he had them."

"What! You mean he's a Maverick?", Signas sputtered in shock. His feelings were echoed by the others in the room except for Axl and Denise. The others set their belongings on the platform and moved over to the two engaged in the interesting conversation.

_"So that explains it."_, Zero thought as he remembered what Axl had done when he escaped from the Medical Wing.

"Yes and no.", she said before filling in the details, "Axl has never had the 'Laws' in his programming. I taught him like you would a normal human child and he understands that he should never hurt or kill a human unless there is no other option. He's different from all other Reploids, but he's not a Maverick. Mavericks think that they are superior to humans and should be ruling over them. My son has never entertained such thoughts and I should slap you for even implying that he could be one of those brutes."

Signas backed off knowing better than to screw with an over-protective mother, "I apologize. I didn't know, but I'm curious as to what would make you take such a risk?"

Gazing softly at her 'son' she said, "I have always had every confidence that Axl could and would behave in proper conduct in regards to that kind of freedom and he's never disappointed me."

_"Way to go mom. I love you."_, thought Axl as he felt his eyes begin to water listening to Denise give his such high praise. Even though he was human and knew how he should behave using force it still meant a lot hearing her say these things.

Signas was still not so sure about that, but he quickly memorized Dr. Wildman's instructions. Ten minutes later the red button lit up and the Commander pushed creating a vortex identical to the one Lan and Chaud had been through before. Signas himself was having a hard time not getting sucked in as well, but he did manage and after the group disappeared into the swirling black abyss it too vanished allowing the papers and all of the lighter equipment to land on the floor. "Good luck men and women.", he said just before the lights went out. "Great...it caused a blackout."

* * *

When the group landed out the vortex they landed in the warehouse district of Sharo. The three Hunters and two Navigators quickly dismissed their armors into subspace and began searching for clue to their exact location.

Axl on the other hand had a very good idea of where they were, _"Only Sharo could be this damned cold."_

Unfortunately several guards had noticed the disturbance created by the vortex and had quickly rushed to the scene just in time to meet a group composed of three young men, two young women, and one middle aged lady. "Halt you are under arrest for trespassing! Do not move.", said one of the soldiers training his gun on the small group.

Zero, X, Layer, and Palette couldn't really do anything anyway since the guards were human. Axl on the other hand was capable of doing anything he wanted which he would've fought back if not for the subtle motions Zero made warning him not to do anything foolish.

X muttered, "Great. First thing in a new world and I get arrested. The universe does have a sense of irony I see."

Denise and the Reploids allowed their bags to be seized and were escorted to holding cells to await further investigation. "This sucks.", said Dr. Wildman as she stared at the cell door.


	8. Destined Meeting

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 8

B-MegaMan had felt the link spring to life just a few hours ago and he was desperately trying to get to the source. It was nowhere near as strong now as it was last time he had Lan by his side, but then again maybe Regal's device had nearly destroyed their link and it was just now regenerating to the point where he could sense his brother's location.

_"Just a little longer Lan and I'll be there. Please be alright little brother."_, he thought frantically as he knocked navi's aside following the pull of their link. He no longer cared if anyone recognized him, but in truth he doubted anyone would unless they got a good look at his icon. Despite Bass Double Soul he still proudly wore the Hikari emblem.

"Hmmm...It seems as though Lan's in Sharo, but how did he get there?", he said trying to pinpoint the source.

* * *

In Sharo the first to awaken was X followed by Zero, Denise, and the two reploid Navigators. The groups had been put in pairs of two and stuffed in separate cells to prevent the possibility of escape. X and Zero were in one cell that was right next to Palette's and Layer's cell. Denise and...Axl? _"Where the hell is Axl?"_, thought X seeing the youngest Hunter nowhere in sight.

Denise as if reading X's mind said, "The guards took him to see some Colonel just about thirty minutes ago."

"You were up during this and you didn't say anything?", asked the blue Hunter narrowing his eyes at the Doctor.

Not surprisingly she didn't even flinch at his look. Instead she smiled, stretched, and replied, "And what good would it do? We are currently their prisoners and can't do anything without hurt them. Which in case you've forgotten you, Zero, and those two navigators have the 'Three Laws' that prevent you from harming humans."

X was concerned about her broadcasting that information to the entire, but relaxed when he saw that they had been placed in a low security prison. That meant few cameras and few, if any, microphones listening in. Just to be safe X conducted a quick scan of the area and came up with nothing. He was relieved that at least something was in their favor, but he still couldn't help but worry about Axl.

Zero was quietly contemplating what he was going to do when they returned to DenTech city. His father certainly wasn't the understanding type in the past so his current existence was going to be rather difficult when they met up again. In truth he still hated having anything to do with his father because he had never been what he truly needed him to be. The end result had turned him into a cold, callous person before Lan had come along. True Protoman had softened him a little and kept him sane during his childhood, but he'd lost that friend because of his own weakness. _"How could I forget what I did to him to save my own skin. Even after all these centuries I can't forgive myself for giving him that Dark-Chip."_, he thought.

Palette and Layer had to scoff at how easily they could've broken out of there, but destroying the locks or doors would alert the guards. That would lead to questions that they were sure that they shouldn't be answering. Hacking the electronic locks was also out since the locks had an independent system that sounded an alarm every time the doors were opened alerting guards that the doors had opened.

Denise was sitting back enjoying watching the Reploids racking their processors for either a way out or other matters that Lan/Axl had told her about years ago. _"They worry too much for their own good."_, she thought before laying her head back down on her small bed.

About this time two guards and a NetSavior walked in looking at the prisoners. Zero immediately recognized the NetSavior as an old colleague from when he was with that organization. The blonde Reploid walked over to the door and greeted, "Hello Laika."

Laika stared at the blonde for a few moments before coldly saying, "The Colonel wishes to speak with all of you. It seems that he's learned quite a bit from your friend Axl." He motioned for the guards to release the locks on the doors while he pulled out two handguns.

Everyone except Denise was worried at what Axl had told the Colonel they were about to see. Denise still had her attitude of 'I don't give a rat's ass' which irked the guards. Laika on the other hand was unphased by her behavior, but then again Zero expected nothing less from the Sharo native.

Laika and the two guards stayed behind the group as they were escorted to a small black van. The driver's and front passenger seats were blocked by thick metal bars and the doors had been disabled so that they could only be opened from the outside. The guards loaded up the prisoners for transport to the other side of the base where Laika's Uncle was waiting for them.

Laika took the driver's seat and told the guards, "I've got it from here. There are four armed guards waiting at our destination."

Knowing that Laika was fully capable of handling this many prisoners by himself the guards returned to their posts. The NetSavior started the vehicle and put it in gear. Within seconds they were on their way to meet up with Axl whom had been gone for a little over a hour now. "Now we will see what you guys are made of.", said Laika as they left the prison area of the base.

* * *

The two guards were back at their posts and had started discussing the recent Nebula activity in the area. Just a few weeks ago Dr. Regal had created an enormous Dimensional Area over the Sharo Rare Metal mine which Laika had repelled with some help from the two NetSaviors Meiru and some strange boy named Dingo.

"So what do you think Regal's going to try next?", one of the guards asked the other.

The other guard growled and then replied, "Who knows with a disgrace like that. Whatever he tries the people of Sharo will counter with our very lives if necessary."

"That's right, we will.", said a new voice entering the prison. The guards looked at the opened door to see an irritated Laika, "Now explain to me why you two have yet to bring one of the prisoner's to the Colonel as per your orders?"

Both guards looked at each other and then back to Laika. One of them spoke, "But sir, we did. Then you came here and took the rest of them to the transport van that you requested. You said that the Colonel wished to interrogate them personally."

Laika looked at both guards with confusion. He spotted an open drink and picked it up sniffing for alcohol. Satisfied that both guards were not drunk or drugged as far as he could tell he asked, "What do you mean I came and took the rest of the prisoners? And what orders?"

The smaller guard walked over to the security system for the cell block and punched up the video of Laika entering the building and giving the new orders to the guards.

Laika's eyes widened in disbelief realizing that both guards had been duped into believing that he had come for the prisoners. He immediately rushed to the security console, entered his security codes, and hit a big red button. Doing so triggered a full lock down of the entire base. No one was allowed in or out until the lock down was terminated by the individual who initiated it.

* * *

Seconds before the alarm went off 'Laika' changed direction away from the offices where the higher-ups stayed for most of the day. The boy turned to the others as the alarm went off and gave a maniacal smile before flooring it heading straight for the main gate.

Zero and the other ducked down after smashing through the gate as the guards starting firing off rounds at the vehicle. Denise however remained sitting up and smiled down at the Reploids. "What?", she asked innocently as the eyed her with dumbfounded expressions.

The driver didn't turn his head or duck as bullets hit the vehicle. "There's no point in ducking. Sharo transports are bullet proof...or at least against the small arms your typical guards carries. The teen ran a civilian car off the road while at the same time nearly hitting a semi-truck before he spoke again casually saying, "You know I never did learn how to drive."

"LAN!", Zero shouted realizing just who 'Laika' actually was. _"He's going to be pissed off when he finds out about this."_, the swordsman thought trying to picture the soldier's reaction.

Ten minutes later there were helicopters searching the area for the stolen black van. The Hunter's had already 'borrowed' ,as Axl put it, a small light blue mini-van. By this time Zero had had enough of Axl's driving and forced the younger Reploid into the back seat with a lot of protesting on Axl's part. The swordsman decided it best to get out of Sharo and fast. _"Hopefully before they put our faces on display at the airports."_, he thought as he drove in the direction of the nearest airfield.

* * *

When they arrived at the airfield it seemed that the military hasn't started searching the planes yet. _"I guess they think that we are a part of...Nebula and wouldn't use regular transportation."_, Axl guessed with disgust at the idea that he would ever work for Regal.

Walking over to an empty terminal Axl placed his hand on it and accessed it with his systems. Palette, Layer, and Denise covered around Axl so that nobody could see what he was doing. Zero and X watched the airport security and were on the lookout for military personnel.

Hacking a number of accounts the 'Next Generation' reploid bought them all tickets to DenTech city and logged out. _"Poor Laika is really going to have my head on a platter now. Especially since I used some of his money to get us out of here. I'm so bad, bad, bad, bad, bad."_, he thought kinda singing the last part.

When they went to the service desk to claim their tickets the ground began to rumble causing Denise to fall into Zero knocking both onto the floor. She was so confused about what was going on that she didn't notice the position she had fallen in.

Dimensional Area generators popped out of the area around the main terminal enclosing most of the airport within the Dimensional Area. _"Nebula!"_, was the one thought that crossed Axl's and Zero's minds.

* * *

Outside of the airport several miles away Laika saw the familiar dome forming through the rear view mirror. _"So Nebula really is stupid enough to use public transportation. Their mine!"_, he thought changing direction.

* * *

Back inside of the main terminal the three Hunters waited for the Darkloid to appear. Zero relayed a message to the other two Hunters using their internal comms, _"Guys act we're using crossfusion. That should cover the explanation of our armors."_

Axl and X agreed before following the same motions and repeating the same thing as Zero. "Synchro-chip in! Download!" A bright light (Zero's light was red, X's was Blue, and Axl's was black.) engulfed each of the Reploids as their armors emerged from subspace. Once their armors had fully formed they resumed waiting, but didn't have to wait very long as a single black navi appeared before them.

Axl immediately recognized the navi's emblem as MegaMan's, but the navi in front of him was was too cold to be Hub. He felt something reaching across the weakened link trying to find him and he tried to reach back in turn. When he got near the source however he pulled his mind back and saw the strange new MegaMan fix him with a glare that put Dark Protoman to shame. "WHERE...IS...LAN!", the navi demanded.

Even MegaMan's voice seemed so much darker than either Chaud or Lan had ever heard from him before.

Axl summoned both guns from subspace since he wasn't entirely sure whether or not he would have to defend himself from his own brother. Then walking towards the navi he called brother Axl said, "I'm right here MegaMan. I finally came back."

B-MegaMan stared at the one who claimed to be his younger twin brother and didn't find it funny in the least that this bastard would say that he was Hub's brother. B-MegaMan's glare intensified ten fold and he summoned his cybersword. Pointing the tip of the blade at Axl he replied, "Just what kind of fool do you take me for? Lan has spikey brown hair and eyes while you have orange hair and green eyes. I know what my bro-NetOp looks like." He then took a swipe at Axl and the battle began.

Laika just entered the Dimensional Area expecting to have to deal with a Darkloid, but to his surprise the escaped prisoners had somehow Crossfused and were now doing battle with...MegaMan. _"No that can't be right. MegaMan doesn't look anything like that and he doesn't have any Double Souls that look like that."_, thought the NetSavior as he decided to watch this battle and only intervene if it became necessary.

Zero takes a swipe at B-MegaMan using his Z-Saber, but is countered by the powerful navi's 'Dark Arm Blade'. X waits until Zero pushes B-MegaMan back before he makes his move. "MegaBuster!", he shouts surprising both Laika and MegaMan himself. The effect is long enough for the shot to connect with it's target throwing the black navi throw the airport terminal walls.

"NO STOP!", Axl shouts at his friends trying to end the fighting against his own brother.

After the black navi recovered from X's MegaBuster he was surprised again this time by the one that claimed to be his brother trying to defend him. The one claiming to be Lan threw himself between B-MegaMan and the other two 'Crossfused' NetOps. _"That's not something Nebula would try, but...if it is Lan then why did he pull away from me? Why can I barely sense the link? It's stronger than it's been since Lan disappeared, but nowhere near as strong as it should be. Lan couldn't have altered his own appearance so much and even if he could, then why?"_, MegaMan thought puzzled over the newcomer. In his heart he was sure that only Lan would do something so reckless...just for him.

Zero and X kept their weapons ready while Denise was actually stunned by this turn of events. _"Finally something shuts her up. If the situation wasn't so serious then I would be gloating right now."_, thought Zero looking back at the Doctor. Layer and Palette were tired of sitting on the sidelines and 'entered Crossfusion'. Both female Reploids pulled out their weapons which had been given to them as gifts from their boyfriends. Layer had her own version of the Z-Saber and Palette had a replica of Axl's twin handguns.

B-MegaMan watched as the two females prepared to fight him and he was determined not to back down unless by some miracle this orange haired boy was actually his little brother.

Seeing that his old sibling was studying him Axl put away both of his guns and approached B-MegaMan with both hands up showing he had no intentions of attacking. "You know it's me MegaMan...", he said before leaning in close and whispering, "Or should I say my big brother, Hub."

B-MegaMan immediately felt the Double Soul dissolve and he knew without any doubts that this had to be Lan. _"It just has to be. No one else outside of our family other than Chaud and Maylu know the truth about me.", he thought feeling tears well up in his eyes._ "L-l-an?", he stuttered trying to hold back the tears and torrent of emotions that were sure to come with it.

"Yeah, it's me.", he said and then gave a forced laugh, "I've...changed since we last met. It's probably the reason why our link has been weakened so."

MegaMan seemed to accept this and cautiously placed a gloved hand on Lan almost as though he were afraid that the other boy would dissolve away. Shortly before the navi reached his brother Lan flinched and pulled back looking away. The blue navi felt hurt that his brother would have this kind of reaction to him.

Sensing MegaMan's hurt when he pulled back Axl continued to look at the ground ashamed and whispered softly, "A lot has happened to me since you last saw me. I've changed...in certain ways." Forcing himself to look the older Hikari in the eye he whispered, "I'm just ready to talk about all of it yet. I still love you Hub, don't doubt that. It's just...hard for me."

Something about this seemed eerily familiar to MegaMan as he recalled their past together. _"He acts like I did around the time he found out the truth about me."_, the navi thought. True to his analysis the younger twin held his head down in what must have been shame, but MegaMan was baffled as to why. _"This was Lan I'm talking about here. How much could he have possibly changed?"_

Laika was only able to hear parts of the conversation and from what he could hear MegaMan knew at least one of the prisoners. The blue navi even seemed rather chummy with that one, but the soldier couldn't figure out why. Deciding it time to announce his presence the NetSavior emerged from behind the pillar he'd been watching from, "Hello MegaMan, escaped prisoners. All of you are to come with me, now." Lower his 'Scope Blaster' the alternative was made quite clear to the entire group.

Unfortunately for Laika Lan had become an excellent marksman with any kind of gun. The shorter NetSavior had used a stun bullet to disable Laika and force the blue haired teen out of Crossfusion before he knew what had hit him. "Sorry about that Laika, but we don't have time for that.", Axl said over the teen's injured form.

MegaMan was about to terminate the Dimensional Area and link back to Lan's PC when the Reploid asked, "Where did you get Dimensional Converters from?"

Rubbing the back of his head nervously Megaman replied, "I kinda stole them from Dr. Regal. I dropped some of them off to dad so that he could develop his own without using innocent navi's to power them."

Axl heard Zero's growls and knew that it was best to get away from the subject of Regal and fast. "Ok. Go home and we'll meet you there as soon as we can.", he said hoping for his brother's quick departure. Hub seemed to be waiting for something else and Axl knew just what, "Then I'll try to tell you about what all has happened."

The blue navi seemed satisfied and logged out causing the Dimensional Area to collapse. Just as the dome came down the Hunters and Navigators quickly hid their armors making it seem like they had just lost Crossfusion as normal.

The Hunters knew that the airplanes were no longer an option, so they went with a less pleasant approach. They first made a path away from the airport and out of sight of most civilians before summoning their Sirius. Axl, Palette, and Denise climbed on his leaving X and Layeron Zero's. The chasers took to the sky giving all of them quite a chill since they didn't have on board heaters and even if they did it wouldn't help since the Sirius didn't have enclosed cockpits. Their destination was DenTech city and hopefully they would arrive in seven hours without incident.

* * *

Up on Dr. Regal's satellite the mad scientist finished making the final repairs to Dark Protoman's program. He watched the fallen hero awaken and immediately demanded, "How did you loose to MegaMan with such a powerful Darkchip at your disposal!"

Dark Protoman looked at Regal and replied, "I'm sorry Master Regal, but MegaMan received help from Bass. I didn't know about it until he tore me with his Bass Double Soul."

To say Regal was surprised was an understatement. The scientist knew of Bass and the navi's extreme hatred of humanity as well as navi's that protect them. _"Why would Bass help MegaMan? It doesn't make any sense."_, he thought pacing around the holographic tube which contained the fully regenerated Darkloid. "Just what are you up to Bass?", he muttered aloud clearly flabbergasted by this twist.

"We should be more cautious sir. If that navi is involved with MegaMan then there is no telling what could happen next.", offered Dark Protoman as he watched the doctor ponder this new information.

"I agree. I want you to personally up all of our security measures. I don't want Bass to get anywhere near Nebula's operations, nor that meddlesome pest MegaMan.", stated Dr. Regal remembering how earlier today a hidden Nebula hideout had been completely destroyed Server and all. _"It must have been MegaMan. How touching...He's trying to get revenge for what happened to the little brat Lan. No matter, all this means is that I'll have to be more careful."_ He walked over to the window overlooking the Earth and said, "Just wait until you see the surprise I have in store for all of you."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Click that button and drop a review. 


	9. Finally Home

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 9

MegaMan arrived in DenTech city through numerous links and he headed straight for Lan's PC which hadn't been touched since the NetSavior's disappearance five and a half months ago. Inside he felt relief that somehow his brother had returned to him, but he was also hurt that their link was in such poor condition. The most he could do at present was sense his twin's location, but nothing more.

"This has to be Lan. Nobody outside of our family and two trusted friends know the truth about me. Papa never even told his co-workers at Sci-Labs the whole truth about me, but why doesn't my brother look anything like he used to?", the blue navi asked himself since he knew that he was alone at present. One of the major changes he'd noticed was the large X-shaped scar that was placed right between Lan's now green eyes, but the thing that scared him was the look in Lan's eyes when they fought. It wasn't the look one would see in the eyes of an innocent teenager, but rather something that you could see in the eyes of hardened soldiers.

Hub didn't want to imagine what his brother must've gone through to have that look in his eyes, but the navi was determined to find out one way or another. Now he just had to wait until Lan made it home before he could get answers.

* * *

Back in Sharo Laika's injured form had been taken back to the military base where the NetSavior's Uncle was waiting. The Colonel was both surprised and alarmed that someone from Nebula had not only infiltrated a high security facility such as this, but they had also imitated Laika so well that the guards had been completely fooled by his act.

The Colonel had watched the camera footage again and again each time showing what even he would've swore was his nephew enter the prison and walk away casually with the prisoners in tow. The one he'd wished to question had never made it and the one that imitated his nephew didn't match the description of the currently unaccounted for prisoner. _"Perhaps he was left behind? Nebula would have no problems with abandoning any of their own if they couldn't keep up, so maybe we won't come out of this completely empty handed."_, he thought to himself as listened to incoming reports from the search party.

Apparently the stolen transport had been found smashed into a tree near a used car lot. The soldiers were questioning the lot owner who told them that his idiot intern had allowed a small group of people to test drive a light blue mini-van. The problem was that all of the forms had been filled out with false information which got the intern into a lot of trouble for not checking for proper ID before handing over the keys to the mini-van.

_"Wonderful. Nebula's probably already picked up the other one and fled by now."_, he thought. He began questioning Searchman about the incident at the airport.

The military navi answered, "It wasn't Nebula that attacked the airport. I know this is going to sound crazy, but the navi that appeared inside of the Dimensional Area was MegaMan. He wasn't the same as usual...he seemed...darker...evil...and he had a new Double Soul that I've never seen before. It looks kinda like the NetNavi Bass, but I can't see why that shadow navi would MegaMan. Bass hates all navi's that work with or for humans."

"I see. We'll have to bring this up with Dr. Hikari.", the Colonel said lowering his head. He turned his attention back to his nephew and asked Searchman, "Now, about the escaped prisoners? What happened there?"

The military navi recalled the confusing events and said, "Three of them were already Crossfused and battling this new MegaMan when Laika and I arrived. One of them even used MegaMan's own signature attack against him. It surprised even MegaMan to have somebody else use a MegaBuster like that." The green navi continued with report while watching the concern on his superior's face, "Two of the female prisoners also Crossfused and joined in the battle against MegaMan. This is where it gets interesting...The prisoner with Orange hair jumped in between his friends and MegaMan effectively halting the battle. Laika and I couldn't hear what was said because they started whispering to one another, but MegaMan's Double Soul dissolved shortly after they started and...they acted like they knew each other sir."

The Colonel was thinking about the strange occurrences involving Bass, new people with Crossfusion capabilities, and MegaMan's connection to one of these new NetOps when Laika woke up. The old man looked at his nephew and said, "Pack some things, we're going straight to DenTech city. I think that it's about time we had a talk with Yuuichiro and MegaMan."

The blue haired teen nodded and stood with only some difficulty before picking up his PET and heading back to his room. "I doubt MegaMan has joined Nebula because of what happened to Lan, but then if these new guys don't work for Nebula...Who are they? And how do they have access to Synchro-chips? Dr. Hikari is the only one on Earth with the knowledge to build them and he would've informed me if we had new recruits.", he said as he packed.

"I don't know sir, but we're going to find out soon enough. Once Yuuichiro is involved MegaMan will tell us everything.", replied the green navi confidently.

* * *

The Hunters, Navigators and Dr. Wildman arrived on outskirts of DenTech city without any unexpected surprises much to their relief. Denise really hated the flight conditions because of the fact she was more vulnerable to the cold than Reploids and Axl kept making insane maneuvers that brought them within inches of the ground at times. _"Note to self: Ground Axl as soon as Nebula's dealt with."_, the scientist thought as she managed to pry her hands from around Axl's waste.

The 'Next Generation' Reploid turned to his mother with a pleased smirk on his face and asked, "Did you enjoy the ride mom?"

Denise glared at her son and shouted, "SIT!"

Zero's eyes widen seconds before he hit the ground. "Damn it, what the hell did I do to deserve that.", he asked pulling himself out of the new crater in the landscape.

Dr. Wildman said, "You're the reason X left his Sirius back home and indirectly responsible for me having to ride with Axl. Do you have any idea just how bad his piloting is?"

The swordsman glared at the doctor and said, "YEAH! I put up with him during the 7th and 8th Marverick Uprisings where he did plenty of piloting. If that's not enough I distinctly recall his driving just a few hours ago in Sharo." _"Why does this insane woman punish me for something that's not my fault? I'm going to kill you Lan for never learning how to drive or pilot correctly."_, he thought staring at the black Reploid.

"Enough", said X getting everyone's attention, "We still have to walk into the city, blend in, and get to Axl's home here. Let's try to keep focused here." X was used to arguments like this and had to break them up all of the time back in his world, but just because they were in a world unfamiliar to him he wasn't about to let his friends tear each other apart.

The other Reploids and Denise settled down after X's weak scolding. They started walking into the city and made it to Lan's house after about a half hour trip. Axl looked at Zero who hadn't complained about their destination and asked, "Why did you choose to come with us Zero? I thought for sure that you'd want to see your father once we came back home."

The blonde swordsman looked at Axl and with hurt in his voice said, "My father and I have never seen eye-to-eye on anything except business. I doubt he even missed my absence for any reason other than he lost IPC's Vice-President. He's not like your father Lan, he doesn't have any emotional attachment to anything or anyone...well his Company yes, but nothing else...not even me."

The gunman was pissed hearing his rival admit such a thing and wanted nothing more than to go looking for Chaud's father and give him an asswooping. _"No parent should treat their kids like that. No wonder Chaud was always such an ass when I first met him, he had to build that mask in order to protect himself."_, the Reploid thought. Axl smiled and said, "Then consider yourself a part of the Hikari family Chaud. And I'm not going to let you worm your way out of it, so don't even think about arguing with me on this one. He he...Now I've got two older brothers."

Blaze knew that Lan wasn't bluffing when he said not to argue and the swordsman wasn't about to enter a battle he knew he couldn't win. _"That has got to be the most stubborn Hikari that there has ever been."_, he thought before saying, "Fine, but don't start calling me brother all of the time. I've still got a reputation to keep you know." He ignored the growling from the younger Reploid and walked off to the side of the front door.

Lan motioned for the others to follow and went straight to the flower pot next to the door. He noticed the look Zero was giving him and said, "I hid a spare key in soil just in case of emergencies and I seriously doubt my parents found it since I was last here." Digging in the soil the Reploid was rewarded with a small silver key that he brushed off and inserted into the door. He opened the door and invited everyone else in, "Come on guys and ladies. MegaMan's probably waiting for me in my room...if it's still there, so you can make yourselves at home until I've finished with that drama."

Zero and Denise were the only ones that really understood just what Axl had meant when he said 'drama' and they couldn't help but laugh at the former human's attempt to make light of the seriousness of the situation. The three normal Reploids plus Denise sat on the couch while Zero began to explain everything that has happened in this world from World Three to the latest threat Nebula and Dr. Regal. The swordsman then started giving the other Reploids tips on how to behave in order to avoid arousing suspicion that they were not human. "...and most importantly if you are pushed towards a Metal Detector either claim that you have metal plates in your bodies or leave as quickly as possible."

* * *

Upstairs Axl had reached the door where his room used to be and he took a deep breath preparing himself for the talk he was about to have with his twin brother. It was an event that he has dreamed of so many times over the last twenty three years, but being so close he was afraid of how Hub would react to the news. Lan was going to have to tell him about how he was no longer human, but not a NetNavi either. The younger twin was also going to have to talk about how he spent eight years as a soldier killing other Reploids.

_"Let's get this over with."_, he thought to himself before opening the door and walking in. The first thing that Lan noticed was that his room looked completely untouched from when he last saw it. His bed was still a mess, books were still out with homework that he never would've completed anyway, and his computer sat on his with the PET plugged into the wall and connected to the PC. _"So there is one change...Papa must've put my PET back in here when I disappeared. He must've thought that I was dead. Did Hub believe that I was dead too?"_, he began thinking before said blue navi startled him from his thoughts.

"Now you've got some explaining to do Lan and I'm not letting you leave here until you tell me **everything**.", MegaMan said leaving no room for escape. Hub could see that this was going to be difficult for his brother, so he vowed to himself that no matter what Lan revealed he wouldn't do anything to upset his twin.

"Well for starters my body is different.", he said hinting at the Reploid body his mind and soul now occupied.

"How is your body different?", Hub asked. When he saw the look of reluctance on Lan's unfamiliar face the navi quickly added, "Don't worry about it, just say it. I mean my body is made of data, so how bad can your changes be?"

Casting an irritated look Lan shot back, "You'd be surprised. You were always better at this kinda thing..."

Annoyed with the response the blue navi countered, "It wasn't easy for me to tell you that I'm your brother...a NetNavi, but you accepted me with unrivaled ease. If I can do that and come out of it fine, then so can you. I wouldn't turn my backon you little brother, so come on...out with it."

The Reploid took a shaky breath and slowly said, "I'm not human anymore...I'm a Reploid."

Hub gave his a twin an intrigued look and tried to force his feelings through the weakened link to encourage his brother. He knew that it was helping, but wasn't enough so he said, "Being human isn't having a flesh and blood body. It's who you are on the inside, remember you told me that so many times after you found out about me." He saw Lan smile and then decided to ask a question that had just started to nag at his mind, "But what's a Reploid?"

The younger Hikari felt his navi's feelings barely through their bond and answered the question, "A Reploid is a robot. Like Kid Grave only a lot more advanced than that scrap heap." Knowing that a more detailed explanation was necessary he continued, "Reploids are machines designed to be as close to human as possible. We can eat, sleep, get sick, bleed, cry, etc..."

"Even have to use the bathroom?", Hub asked trying to lighten the mood.

Lan's face turned slightly red and he laughed awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, "Yeah...we have to do that too." A thought crossed the teen's mind and he looked at his PC screen where his brother stood, "Maybe Papa can make a Reploid body for you. Denise would certainly be willing to help and then you can be out here with me."

Hub listened to the idea with a great deal of interest and felt butterflies in his digital stomach. _"I didn't know that Papa programmed me to be able to feel these kind of feelings."_, the human turned navi thought at the unusual sensation. Smiling at his twin he said, "We'll talk about that with them later...first we kinda need to tell our parents that you're alive. Assuming that they don't die of shock, then we can discuss me getting the body of a Reploid."

"Speaking of Mama and Papa, where are they?", asked Lan.

The older twin replied, "Mama's visiting some of her girlfriends right now while Papa is at work at Sci-Labs." The blue navi really wanted nothing more than to hightail it to Sci-Labs with the Denise woman and Lan to get Yuuichiro started on the new body, but he had to be patient for Lan's sake. Of course it wasn't going to be a walk in the park explaining to their parents that not only was Lan Hikari still alive, but that he was also no longer physically human. _"Yeah, that one's going to be fun. I just hope that Mama doesn't faint on us, Papa I'm not too worried about at least not there."_, he thought trying to picture their reactions.

"So Lan, who are the others downstairs?", he asked. Since his brother and the other guests had first entered the home MegaMan had been watching them all through the security system, but he wasn't listening in on their conversations as an extended courtesy to them and his little brother.

The Reploid looked thoughtful for a second before saying, "Come with me and I'll introduce you to them. Denise you're really going to like." MegaMan transferred himself downstairs to the wide screen TV in the living room where the guests were...Two of them were yelling at each other!

"What's going on here?", the blue navi demanded. In response he saw the female brunette and blonde guy turn away from each other with a 'humph!' before they stormed off to opposite sides of the room. Looking to the guy that looked a lot like himself MegaMan asked, "Would you care to explain what that was about?"

X smiled nervously and said, "Those two are like that all of the time. Given the chance I'm sure that they'd kill each other."

"Like that overgrown cybernetic monkey could get rid of me that easily.", Denise said in response to what X had said.

Zero growled and barked his own response, "You're right. You're like a cockroach, no matter what you do you just can't seem to kill them."

_"Is it just me or does it seem like those two secretly like each other?"_, the blue navi thought. X had thought the same thing before, but Zero had pulled out his Z-Saber when questioned on it last time. The blue Hunter had decided it better for his health to keep his mouth shut with opinions like that.

Before anymore could be said Axl joined everyone downstairs and walked up to the fuming doctor. "Hub this is my adoptive mother, Denise Wildman. She's taken care of me for the last twenty three years."

MegaMan looked at his twin like he'd lost his mind and said, "Lan you've only been gone for five and a half months. There's no way you could've been with her for twenty three years."

"Not true.", Denise began, "Time travels differently in different Universes and when dealing with black holes like the one that sent Lan to my world time is never really a decided factor. For instance he was sent twenty three years into the past in my world and from there he was taken care of by me for most of that time. Then for some reason he decided to go join 'Red Alert' and then he left those renegades for the 'Maverick Hunters'."

"Huh? Maverick Hunters? Red Alert? I'm lost here.", said MegaMan.

X helped make it easier on Axl by explaining about Mavericks, Red Alert, The Hunters, and Sigma. "When I first met your brother I wanted to lock him up. I held him responsible for the huge mess that had been made when he broke his ties with 'Red Alert'. To me he was no better than a Maverick, but over time he grew on me and eventually he made me see the light so to speak."

The blue Hunter continued looking at the black Reploid, "Axl reminded me that sometimes you have to fight in order to protect the innocent. I've always been such a hardcore pacifist or an asshole as he put it several times. Thanks to him I can continue fighting to protect the peace. I owe you more than you can imagine Axl."

Axl smiled and MegaMan asked, "Who's Axl?"

The smile on the black Reploid's face disappeared and he laughed nervously, "Well...ya see...When Denise put me in this body she renamed me Axl to hide the fact that I was originally human. Just like how Papa renamed you MegaMan to hide the big secret about you."

The blue navi glared at his younger sibling and said, "I can't believe that you left something like that out."

"Sorry. I'm just so used to being called Axl that it just kinda slipped my mind.", Axl apologized. The black Reploid then walked over to X and began the introductions, "This is X the leader of my particular unit. He's got a good heart, but can be pain at times. Denise you already know, so I'll jump to the others." Approaching the purple haired Navigator he said, "This is Layer. She's a Navigator, that means she handles coordinating missions and simulations. Her specialty is pinpointing an enemy's weak point faster than anyone else that I know." He walked over to the other Navigator and said, "This is Palette. She's also a Navigator like Layer, but her specialty lets her spot hidden routes that we would normally miss. You'd be surprised at how many hidden weapon caches she's directed us to." Finally he walked over to Chaud and asked using their internal comms, _"Is it ok if I tell my brother about you?"_

The blonde swordsman shrugged and replied, _"Doesn't matter to me. Just as long as he doesn't tell anyone else, not even Roll."_

Axl nodded which didn't go unnoticed by MegaMan and then said, "This is Zero. He's our resident swordsman and a veteran of the war against Mavericks. This guy's much older than me seeing as he was sent further back in time than I was."

MegaMan's eyes widened and he shouted, "CHAUD! YOU'RE ALIVE? IS EVERYONE HERE A REPLOID!"

Denise spoke up saying, "I'm the only still human one here. The rest are Reploids."

Zero ignored Dr. Wildman and nodded to the blue navi's question, "But don't tell anyone about me and call me Zero. I stopped being Chaud a long time ago, that person died centuries ago."

Axl added seeing the confused look on his brother's face, "Zero is about three hundred years old." He left out the rest not wanting to reveal to Chaud that he'd found out about how Zero had become a reploid and what he'd done after the transformation.

"Alright, I guess. I think that you're making a mistake, but I won't say anything.", said MegaMan. "Now I guess we have to wait until Mama and Papa come home. I wonder how well this is going to go."

"It won't be that bad. Dr. Hikari is the most accepting person I've ever met.", said Chaud surprising everyone with his uncharacteristic show of emotion and optimism.

"Right...", added Axl absent mindedly scratching the side of his face.

This movement however made something click inside of the blue navi's mind. "Lan? How did you get that scar between your eyes?", MegaMan asked trying not to be offensive.

Axl winced and said, "I got it when I first started fighting Mavericks. I was 'green' and careless, so I ended up getting caught by the swords of a Praying mantis type Reploid. Red saved my life that day and that's when I joined 'Red Alert'." Even Denise had never been told exactly where that scar had come from and when she asked Axl would always say, "It's a reminder not be careless."

The Reploids, navi, and human continued to talk about what they've all gone through to get here. Denise of course left out a huge part of her past saying that 'A woman's past is best kept secret.'

* * *

After getting off of their flight the Colonel and Laika were escorted to Sci-Labs by a few NetSaviors. Laika lead the way from there straight to Yuuichiro's office where he was waiting for them, "So what is this about Laika?", he asked knowing that the NetSavior preferred to avoid DenTech city as much as possible because he viewed their NetSaviors as weak.

The Blue haired NetSavior told Yuuichiro about the encounter with the prisoners that seemed to have Synchro-chips and the new MegaMan. He noticed the look of surprise on the scientist's face when he told the man about how MegaMan and one of the prisoners seemed to know each other.

Dr. Hikari was quick to defend his son, "MegaMan would never hand over the Synchro-chip technology to anyone and if one of these prisoners knows my late son's navi then I'll find out later on tonight. I trust MegaMan whole heartedly and I resent the implication that he maybe working for Nebula. You of all people know that he hates that organization more than anyone since they took Lan from us." _"It is a good thing that Laika doesn't know about Hub or else he would probably say that parenthood is clouding my judgment."_, the scientist thought angrily.

Laika shook his head and said, "I don't think he's working for Nebula, but I do think that he might've been fooled by people who work for Dr. Regal. The only way to know for sure is to find them and I think MegaMan might have information that could help us there. The only way to know for certain is to ask MegaMan himself."

Yuuichiro accepted the possibility begrudgingly, "I'll talk with him tonight." He sighed and then thought to himself,_ "I've noticed that MegaMan's been acting darker than usual. I chauked it up to Lan's death, but maybe he's gone renegade trying to take Nebula on by himself."_

The Colonel stopped Laika before he could push further and said, "Thank you Dr. Hikari, but I'd still like to speak with himsometime tomorrow."

Dr. Hikari agreed to bring MegaMan tomorrow for an interview with the Colonel, but he said, "If this turns into an interrogation without any real evidence then I'm going to pull the plug myself. Also I will be present for the interview or else there won't be one. Those are my terms and non-negotiable."

"Fine. Tomorrow it is then.", said the Colonel as he and Laika left.


	10. Darkness Cometh

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 10

AfterLaika and the Colonel left Yuuichiro called his wife's cellphone. When she picked up he said, "Haruka honey, I need you to find MegaMan. It seems that Sharo's military wants to speak with him and I need to talk to him first."

When Haruka replied the fear could be heard in her voice, "You don't thinkthat they know about...'him' do you?" It was one of her worst fears other than losing Lan which had already happened. Now with the possibility of losing her other little boy seemingly such a real possibility her motherly instincts were working overtime making her one extremely paranoid and sometimes aggressive mother.

Yuuichiro couldn't blame his wife for acting this way. He'd lost a son that day too and now he regretted spending so much time away from Lan while he was growing up. While it was true that he did spend a lot of time working on ways to improve MegaMan's capabilities he'd also spent time on many other projects causing him to neglect one if not both of his sons. He finally replied to his worried wife saying, "I don't know, but once I talk with Hub I'm certain to find out. Hopefully he hasn't let anything slip since his brother's passing. I'm beginning to think that we let him spending way too much time out on the Net."

"But he needs his space. If we crowd Hub we could lose the only son that we have left. Give him more time to grieve...he more than anyone needs it right now. You and I can't understand just how strong the bond between twins can be, but he knows and it's going to take time for him to deal with. All that we can do is be there and offer our support.", said Haruka. Privately she agreed with her husband and would talk to Hub and get him to spend less time on the Net.

"I know dear, but please find him and bring him home. I'll talk to him later on tonight and see what I can do.", said Yuuichiro before he and his wife hung up.

* * *

Up on Regal's satellite the renegade scientist had come up with perfect way to lure Rockman out. "Do you understand your assignment Dark Protoman?", he asked watching the Darkloid carefully. 

"Yes Master. I'll retrieve the target and bring the little pipsqueak here.", replied Dark Protoman as he logged out to hunt down his prey. He knew that without 'the target' MegaMan would be able to rip him to pieces and would probably think nothing of it. The Darkloid chuckled as he remembered watching Chaud and Lan die six months ago. He would never admit it to anyone but a part of the old Protoman still beat strongly in his heart. When Chaud died a part of himself had died too.

"Perfect. Now we'll find out just how powerful Bass made you...and perhaps even why he's helping you.", muttered Regal as he watched a surveillance tape of MegaMan that was a few weeks old. The brilliant scientist knew that he wouldn't get much information watching this, but it would help him understand MegaMan's mind just a little better. Something about this navi seemed so different from other navis...he was more independent, had more freedoms that Regal didn't think could be programmed. Yet the proof was right in front of him, somehow Dr. Hikari had done something that even he couldn't do and Regal was determined to find out how.

The door to the control room decompressed and opened as Ms. Yuri walked into the room. "So what's this that I hear MegaMan trashed your favorite little puppet?", she asked with a smirk. She may work for this man, but she didn't particularly like him...just the money that she could get from him and the small comfort from being around someone that had gone through such an living changing experience like the one that had separated her from her sister Ms. Mari.

Dr. Regal growled and the replied curtly, "Yes, it seems that Bass has decided to get involved in this."

That was certainly not the answer Yuri had been expecting. She thought for sure that he'd have some witty comeback or petty chore for her, but to hear that the Super Navi Bass was helping MegaMan...she wasn't prepared for that. When she overcame her surprise she asked, "So why is the ultimate human hater helping a human loving navi like MegaMan? Any ideas?"

"Unfortunately none. Whatever is going through Bass' mind I can't predict it at present. Every navi I've sent to locate and spy on him has been sent back at the point of near deletion as a message to me.", said Regal. Bass it seemed did have a sense of humor and right now he was enjoying mocking Regal's Darkloids. _"Whatever you're up to I will counter. Both world shall be mine in the end and I'll destroy anyone that tries to stop me."

* * *

_

In DenTech city at the Hikari residence Axl and Zero were trying their best to teach X, Palette, and Layer how to act like human beings. The two female navis were passable with help from Denise, but X...X was a different story. The two humans turned Reploid held their heads down in shame hearing X's attempt to make a human joke.

Axl looked at Zero and said, "If he ever tries to make a joke again...I'm gonna kill him." To the young Reploid's surprise the swordsman agreed and had his hand on his Z-Saber just in case X cracked one of his horrible jokes. _"Man! He's a few hundred years old and he can't even make one good joke. That is pathetic."_, thought the orange haired Reploid.

Denise was successful in getting X to stop when she threatened him with a collar like Zero was forced to bare. She caught Zero whispering to himself _'...and that evil bitch would do it too.'_ She looked Zero in the eyes and said, "That's Queen Bitch to you...and what a lovely thing to say...SIT! SIT! SIT!"

The blonde was now part of the Hikari's floor thanks to the collar. Hub wasn't thrilled when he saw that, but even he had a hard time not laughing knowing that it was Chaud who was collared like that. He turned to Denise and asked, "And just who's going to fix that mess before Mama and Papa get home?"

Dr. Wildman smiled evilly at Zero and the Reploid knew that he'd just been volunteered. _"If I'm lucky maybe Dr. Hikari can get this thing off of me."_, he thought knowing that any argument from him would result in more 'Sits' and pain.

"See you can teach men anything with the proper tools.", Dr. Wildman said pointing at Zero. She knew that she'd gotten under his skin when his crystal blue eyes became blood shot. _"He must really hate me right now."_, she thought grinning from ear to ear.

X offered to help Zero make the repairs to speed things up while Axl went to talk with his brother. "So, be honest. What do you think Mama and Papa are going to think of the new me?", the young Reploid asked. Now Axl had to tell his parents and eventually his old friends. The question racing through his mind was would they believe him. _"What is Maylu going to think of me? Will I even have a chance with her anymore? Do I even still want to be with her or Palette?"_, he wondered. After the years he'd spent as a Reploid Lan had matured somewhat...well he wasn't as dense as he used to be at any rate. He knew that Maylu had feelings for him and maybe he still had feelings for her, but he'd have to wait and see how things turned out.

MegaMan smiled and replied, "Of course Lan. They took me being turned into a navi well...except for all the tears that came after I died." For a moment MegaMan's attention seemed elsewhere and then he smiled at his younger brother. "It looks like it's already 'that' time. Mama's home and Papa shouldn't be too far behind. Since you 'died' he's been spending as much time we me and Mama as possible...to be honest it's getting really annoying, but I understand why he's doing it."

"Yeah...yeah so do I.", said the Reploid as he started pacing back and forth trying to imagine how the next few minutes would play out. With some psychic influence from Hub Axl was able to calm down and told the others to get ready for an interesting talk.

Just as Axl had promised Haruka entered the house calling out, "Hub sweety are you here? We really need to have a talk." She found three women on one couch and three young men on the other. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house!", she demanded pulling out a can of mace, but keeping it hidden behind her back.

"Woah! Woah lady settle down. There's no need for violence.", said X as he motioned for her to sit in the recliner. "We just came here to talk to you...", he said taking a look at Axl. He saw the Reploid nod and continued, "We have information about your son...Lan."

Haruka flew out of the chair and pointed the can of mace at X. Zero and Axl recognized the container and ducked for cover leaving X to fend for himself. Even though the Hunter was a Reploid mace could still hurt him and unfortunately he had no idea what Haruka was pointing at him until it was too late. Haruka emptied the contents into the Hunter's eyes and pulled out her taser punching him right in the chest with it. "HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE DEAD! MY LITTLE BOY DIED ONLY SIX MONTHS AGO AND THEN SICKOS LIKE YOU PEOPLE...", she started ranting before Axl restrained her. "Oh! Let me go! Let me go! Help somebody!"

"Mama calm down. They're not lying to you.", said MegaMan using the holographic projector that Dr. Hikari had installed to appear life sized in the living room. When his mother stopped fighting MegaMan said, "They do know where my little brother is. I know because I've been talking to him for the last few hours."

"But Hub darling you saw your brother die six months ago. He can't still be alive after that...that...that Protoman.", she said giving in to her tears.

_"Well Lan it's time to tell her. Or would you rather wait until Papa gets home?"_

_'No. I'll tell her now, just not everything. The history lesson will have to wait until Papa gets here.'_

_"Thank you. She really needs this ya know."_

_'I know. Then again you already knew that.'_

Axl felt the connection he shared with his twin was still disturbingly weak, but it still let them communicate with each other. The link also let Axl feel something unsettling inside of Hub...it felt dark, evil. The Reploid believed that it was just Hub's feelings towards Nebula for supposedly killing himself. Turning his attention back to the woman in his arms Axl said, "I know that your son is well, but he's different now. Much like your other little boy Hub."

Haruka looked at Axl surprised that he knew such a closely guarded secret and then to MegaMan who nodded. _"Why would Hub take such a risk? These people are just trying to exploit our family and my son fell for it."_, she thought feeling her eyes water up again. "Hub you fool...what have you done?", she said looking at her oldest son.

MegaMan's gaze remained strong and he replied, "I didn't tell them about me. Lan did and he's got something else to tell you, right Lan?"

Haruka was completely baffled and looked around to see if Lan had just changed his appearance. None of the people their looked even remotely like Lan, so she looked back to Hub for answers. She got her answer when Axl started to laugh at her confusion. "What's so funny? How dare you..."

Axl placed a finger over his mother's mouth silencing her insults. "...I'm right here Mama. I'm Lan, but different in more than just appearance."

Haruka looked at the other guys and pointed to Zero. "And I suppose that you are going to tell me that that's Chaud? What kinda fool do you take me for?" Axl suddenly got wide eyed and looked at Zero. Mrs. Hikari's mouth fell wide open when she saw that look on Axl's face. "Oh my God. THAT REALLY IS CHAUD? ...AND YOU'RE...YOU'RE MY LITTLE BOY!"

"Yep, that would be me.", replied a cheerful Axl.

Without warning Haruka grabbed Lan by the ear and pulled hard. "WHY..DID...YOU...DYE...YOUR...HAIR!", she demanded stressing each word. She felt pleased seeing the other 'guests' and Chaud shrink away in fear of her wrath.

Axl laughed nervously and said, "That's actually a very funny story."

"What's so funny about it?", asked Haruka making her youngest even more nervous. She'd told him many times before that he would never be allowed to dye his chocolate brown hair as long as she had any say in it and yet here he was with orange hair. Orange of all colors...well she was glad that it wasn't purple or pink.

Hub came to his brother's rescue saying, "He's right it's...interesting, but we really should wait for Papa to get home before he's goes into details. It's a long story and I think that he'd rather only tell it once more."

Mrs. Hikari released the ear and pulled Lan into a loving hug while the youth tried to nurse the injured ear. "Alright, I'll give you until the time Yuuichiro comes home to come up with a REALLY GOOD reason why you hair is orange.", she said before turning to the others, "Are you going to introduce me to these people Lan?"

"Oh, right. Sorry about that." Axl said over to Zero. "As you already know this is actually Chaud, but don't tell anyone. He's got...daddy issues.", said the younger boy before muttering, "Not that I can blame him given who his is."

Zero had been ready to hit Axl for saying that, but stopped himself when he heard what they boy had muttered. _"Thanks Lan."_, he thought before nodding to Haruka.

Denise didn't give Axl a chance to say more before she walked up and shook hands with his mother. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Dr. Denise Wildman and I've acted as Lan's guardian since he ended up in our world.", she said.

"Your world?", asked Mrs. Hikari as she began to question the brunette's sanity.

"Yes my world. Your son ended up being thrown into another time and universe. I've taken care of him for...twenty three years. Actually when I found him in such horrible shape I took him in as my son.", said Denise as she felt eager to trade stories about Lan.

"Your son?", asked Haruka.

Denise smiled sadly and said, "Yes sadly I can't have children on my own and when I found Lan it seemed like the answer to my prayers. I understand if you don't-"

"Oh nonsense. That boy needs all the mothers and fathers he can get given his knack for digging up trouble.", said Haruka as she'd figured out where Denise was going. Her heart went out to this woman who couldn't have children on her own, so she decided that she could share her little boy with Denise. The doctor seemed to be very pleasant and she was sure that they'd get along well.

"Thank you Mrs. Hikari.", replied Dr. Wildman.

Palette took a page from Dr. Wildman's book and repeated the doctor's actions, but said something very unexpected. "How are you Mrs. Hikari? I'm your son's girlfriend Palette. It's nice to finally meet my future in laws."

Denise and Haruka covered their faces to try to hide their laughter, but Zero, X, and Layer didn't bother. Axl was beyond shocked on froze completely where he was standing. Palette walked up to him and waved a hand in front of her self-declared boyfriend's face. "Um...guys...he passed out...on his feet.", she said pulling his larger body to the couch and lying him down in the seat.

Saito was shocked that Lan hadn't told him that he'd picked up a girlfriend in that other world. _"So he's been holding out on me. You sly dog...but you'll be a dead dog when Maylu finds out. This is going to get ugly."_, he thought.

When everything finally settled back down X introduced himself since Axl was currently unavailable. "I'm X. Lan and Chaud were part of the military back home and I was their Unit Leader. It's always been an honor serving with them and you should be proud of your son ma'am."

"Military? Chaud explain.", said Mrs. Hikari leaving no room for argument.

He sighed and then answered, "We served in the military to prevent what are called Mavericks from hurting innocent people. We were part of a group called 'The Maverick Hunters' which is that world's version of the NetSaviors. I kept an eye on Lan and I have to agree with X, you should be proud."

Finally the purple haired Navigator stood up and introduced herself. "I'm Layer. My purpose with the Hunters was to serve as a battle analyst. I'm also Zero's girlfriend by the way."

Axl finally started to wake up after Palette shook him harshly and Mrs. Hikari said, "Well it's good to know that somebody is taking good care of Chaud."

When Axl was finally up he said nothing to Palette, but he did blush making both humans say, "Awww isn't that cute." The other two Hunters were smirking and Layer was simply holding a tight grip on Zero. Finally Axl recovered enough to talk and said, "Mama...I talked with Chaud and well...me and Hub want to adopt him into our family."

"But Lan he's already got a family. We can't just do something like that.", she said trying to explain just how bad of an idea that was. She knew Chaud's father would throw every penny he had to retrieving his son simply because he wanted an heir. Mrs. Hikari was aware of how Mr. Blaze treated his son and she absolutely detested the man almost as much as Chaud himself.

"Mrs. Hikari, it's ok. I have no intentions of ever returning to my 'father'. Besides according to NetSavior records Chaud Blaze died just a few months ago, so really all you have to do is adopt Zero.", said the blonde swordsman with a smirk. So long as nobody other than the Hikaris and Reploids knew who he really was there shouldn't be a problem.

Reluctantly Mrs. Hikari agreed with one condition, "Yuuichiro has to agree with this and handle all of the arrangements. One question, why Zero?"

The swordsman gave one of his rare smiles and said, "Because that is the name that I was given when I was reborn as I am now. Lan was renamed Axl, but he responds to either name. As for what I mean by 'reborn'...well you'll just have to wait until Dr. Hikari gets here."

"Fair enough.", Haruka said. She had to admit she was more than a tad curious as to how else the two boys were different, but she'd wait as long as it took.

Outside there was a loud crash and then a multi-colored glow appeared confusing everyone except for Zero, Axl, and MegaMan. A Dimensional Area was forming right over the Hikari household.

"Nebula.", all three former humans spit out knowing who was behind this. The Hunters went on their guard while MegaMan transferred himself into the Dimensional Area.

Seconds later Dark Protoman appeared before the group. "Well this is a surprise. I didn't know that you had company Mrs. Hikari...and there you are MegaMan. How nice to see you again.", the Darkloid sneered. The navi turned to Zero and felt something stirring inside of his corrupted heart, but the navi brushed it aside. "Time to get down to business.", he said call forth his Cyber Sword.

* * *

Outside of the Dimensional Area was Laika and the Colonel. They'd decided to see if they could get Haruka to let them speak to MegaMan since it was obvious that Yuuichiro was going to be difficult and they'd arrived at the Hikari home just before the Dimensional Area generators landed. "Sir?", asked Laika. 

"Go ahead nephew. Make Sharo proud.", said the Colonel. He watched as Laika rushed climbed on top of the car ready to jump into the dome once he'd gather up enough speed to break through. The Colonel planned to veer off at the last second so he was worried about crashing into the barrier. Not many people knew that Laika's Uncle had been a daredevil in his youth before he joined the military, so something like this gave the old man a little excitement these days.

"Synchro-chip in. Download. Begin Crossfusion.", said Laika and Searchman as they made contact with the domes outer barrier. _"I wonder what Nebula's up to this time."_, he wondered making his way to the Hikari's home at the center of the Dimensinal Area.


	11. Zero VS Dark Protoman

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 11

"Get down to business? Yeah, right. You'll deal with me Dark Protoman.", said Zero.

The other Reploids quickly backed off seeing the blonde swordsman go straight into 'Hunter' mode. Past experience had taught them that when Zero acted like this the best thing that they could do was just get out of the swordsman's way.

Dark Protoman smirked raising his sword. "And just what do you think that you are going to be able to do to me? ...hurt my feelings." To the Darkloid's surprise the humans except for Mrs. Hikari took a number of quick steps away while the one with orange hair pulled Haruka back while glaring at him. Protoman felt something strange about this one too. Like he should know him, but he just couldn't figure out where or how.

X looked at his second in command and said, "Zero calm down. Don't destroy this lovely house, he's not worth it."

Axl knew why Zero was acting like this and that this was something that the older Reploid felt that he had to do. He knew that the blue eyed Reploid still held regrets about inserting that Dark Chip, but Zero had learned that long ago that he couldn't save everyone. Now Axl knew that Protoman was going to be deleted for sure.

"Mrs. Hikari I apologize in advance for any destruction I'm about to cause to your home. Once I'm finished I'll clean up the mess.", said Zero not taking his eyes off of his former NetNavi.

Dark Protoman growled at the blonde swordsman when he heard the boy was not backing down. "So you wanna play with the big boys...fine with me, but don't expect me to go easy on you."

That was the last remark Protoman made before Zero dashed into the Darkloid. The navi hadn't thought that the blonde would be able to move that fast or have so much strength. Both went through the wall and out onto the streets. The other Reploids followed behind the two swordsmen while the two humans watched from the relative safety of the house.

Zero again mimicked entering Crossfusion as he had in Sharo and pulled out his Z-Saber. "Let's see what you've got.", he commented.

The Reploid and Navi charged at each other. When their blades met Zero pushed forward and threw Protoman into one of the neighbor's cars. _"That'll take a rather large chunk of change to repair."_, thought the blonde swordsman as he pulled back allowing his old navi to get back up. Zero smirked at the angry Darkloid and said, "Now was that about 'not going easy' on me? It looks to me like that's exactly what you're doing. No challenge."

Dark Protoman was now very pissed and threw some of his Dark Aura at Zero. The Aura just clipped Zero in the leg when the Reploid jumped over most it. Protoman smirked when Zero glanced down at his leg, but it vanished when he could see clearly. The Reploid had a small black blemish on his red armor and that was all.

The blonde knew where his navi was looking and smirked. "Not smiling now huh? This is nothing." To back up his words Zero used that same foot to jump towards Protoman again. As soon as the Reploid got close enough he slashed downward slicing right through Protoman's sword.

"I-I-Impossible." Protoman was now without his sword. For the second time since becoming a Darkloid he felt a wave of fear course through him stronger than when he'd fought B MegaMan. _"This can't be how this is going to end!"

* * *

_

From Regal's satellite the madman watched the newcomer do battle with his prized Darkloid. "Who are those people? Where did they come from?", he asked himself. Protoman's Dark Aura seemed useless against the blonde swordsman and Regal wasn't happy about it.

"Well it looks as though we've got more trouble makers to deal with.", said Ms. Yuri as she entered the control room. The brunette sat down on the steps and watched Dark Protoman strike at a target that was clearly out of the dark navi's league.

"Indeed. If the other fighters are this strong and they join up with the NetSaviors, then Nebula may truly be in serious trouble.", Regal commented. He turned to Yuri and said, "Go and find out everything that you can on those people. If they have families or friends I want to know who and where. We may need that leverage. I might even decide to recruit them to our cause."

"I will after this fight. I'll stay until this is over and hopefully they'll reveal something that I can use to find out who they are.", said Yuri. She heard a grunt of approval and continued to watch the fight.

* * *

On his way home from Sci-Labs Dr. Hikari spotted the enormous Dimensional Area and rushed towards his home. _"Please don't let Haruka or Hub be hurt. I can't lose anyone else that I love."_, he thought. When Yuuichiro reached the edge of the large dome he found the Colonel staring into the field and Laika no where to be found. Yuuichiro approached the military officer and asked, "What are you doing here and where is Laika?"

The Colonel turned around surprised to see that Yuuichiro was there. He knew that the other man would quickly begin to suspect what he and Laika had been up to so he quickly covered saying, "We saw the Dimensional Area forming and came here to deal with the Darkloids. Laika just entered a few minutes ago to handle the situation."

Dr. Hikari couldn't tell if the soldier was lying or not. Right now he was more concerned with his wife and son who were caught right in the middle of the dome. "It seems that Dr. Regal is targeting MegaMan and/or my wife."

"With Nebula it's very likely. Dr. Regal wouldn't hesitate to strike at your family again and MegaMan has been one of his greatest enemies since Nebula appeared.", said the Colonel. It seemed that Yuuichiro had been fooled for now.

* * *

Laika quickly made his way to the Hikari's home and found the prisoners that had escaped from his jurisdiction fighting Dark Protoman. "What is going on here?"

Searchman surveyed the scene and was also at a loss to explain things. "Maybe they're defecting or something?", he offered. As they watched the fight continue he noticed that the blonde was the only one fighting while the others stood back and watched. _"Either they've got a lot of confidence in the blonde or they're against him.",_ he thought.

Laika watched Zero take a direct hit from Dark Protoman's Hi-Cannon throwing the Reploid deep into a nearby home. To the soldier's surprise the other escaped prisoners just stared at the hole and seemed to be waiting on something. _"What are they doing?"_

Seconds later everyone could hear a disturbing little tune coming from the home.

_Total slaughter, total slaughter_

_I won't leave a single man behind_

_La-de-da-de-da genocide_

_La-de-da-de-da an ocean of blood_

_Let's begin...the killing time_

_"Where does Zero come up with these horrible tunes?"_, thought X. His fellow Hunter seemed to have a very sadistic streak at times.

Palette just looked at the hole confused while Haruka and Dense exchanged disturbed looks. _"Note to self: Take Zero to see a shrink."_, thought Dr. Wildman. Layer and Axl knew that Zero was singing that tune just to rattle Dark Protoman.

From the looks of it the song was serving it's purpose. The Darkloid was now shaking slightly and staring into the hole waiting for Zero to come through. The Reploid didn't disappoint as his form became visible in the wreckage of the home. He was calmly walking back towards Protoman with an unsettling smile on his face and a wicked gleam in his eyes.

MegaMan stepped outside to get a better view of the fight, but stayed close to the house so that Protoman couldn't get to Haruka or Dr. Wildman. He watched Chaud and shuddered thinking how much his brother's rival had changed over the years that they had been in that other world. _"Yep, Chaud's finally lost it. Creepy tune."_

Laika and Searchman felt an icy chill down their spines and thanked the stars that they weren't this guy's current target. Like Dr. Wildman Laika seriously questioned the blonde's emotional stability. The NetSavior decided that when the time came to fight that they should take Zero out fast as he was shaping up to be their biggest threat.

When Zero was fully in view of Dark Protoman the Darkloid looked the Reploid over for any damage. His greatest fears were realized when he saw that the other swordsman didn't have a scratch on him and if anything...he looked eager to continue. _"What the hell am I thinking! Dr. Regal isn't even paying me to do this and yet I'm still out here insane enough to fight this lunatic."_

Zero had long ago mastered reading Protoman's expressions even though he couldn't see the navi's eyes. He knew what Protoman was thinking even with his corrupted heart. He advanced towards his former navi and friend humming the tune from before.

Before the fight could continue Dr. Regal contacted his Darkloid. "Dark Protoman retreat for now. As you currently are this NetOp would tear you to shreds."

Eager to obey the Darkloid logged out. Protoman felt humiliated that Zero forced him to retreat, but he swore that he would get even the next time they met. Zero, Axl, and MegaMan had already figured out that Regal knew Protoman was out classed. The next attack would no doubt come from an even more powerful Dark Protoman and they would have to be ready for him.

When the Dimensional Area faded Zero changed back at the right time continuing the deception that he had been in crossfusion. Laika walked slowly towards the escaped prisoners and kept his eyes on Zero. "Who are you guys? Explain yourselves.", he demanded.

Zero shrugged not really caring to answer Laika. X started to talk, but was cut off when Axl elbowed him in the gut. "That's actually a bit complicated, but to answer part of your question we are not part of Nebula.", said Axl.

Laika looked at him surprised and said, "I didn't ask that."

"But you were thinking it. It's written all over your face.", replied Axl glaring at Laika. He never really liked Laika all that much and he absolutely hated the idea of being associated with the very group that had almost killed him years ago. Sharo's NetSavior had inadvertently insulted Axl and the Reploid promised himself to make Laika pay for it later.

"Why don't we all come inside.", suggested Haruka. The young brunette lead the way into her home and sat Laika away from everyone else knowing that the young man had tried to bypass her husband and talk to MegaMan alone. Once they were all seated she said, "I need to check on the food in the kitchen. MegaMan would you give me a hand?"

"Yes ma'am.", replied the blue navi.

* * *

In the safety of the kitchen away from Laika's sharp ears Haruka waited for MegaMan. Once the navi appeared she became very serious. "Hub please tell me that you haven't done anything to alert others that you were once human."

"No mama, I haven't. After I thought that I'd lost Lan I became even more cautious about that secret." The only one that knew the truth besides his parents and brother was Bass. The Super Navi had known for some time the origins of the blue navi. When he'd kidnapped MegaMan during Grave's quest for power Bass had scanned that memory from Hub. After giving the Bass Double Soul to MegaMan the super navi had sworn that he hadn't told anyone else and for some strange reason MegaMan believed him. After all Bass may be many things, but being a liar wasn't one of them.

"Then do you have any idea what this is about?", asked Haruka.

MegaMan shook his head. "Sorry mama. I'm not sure what Laika's here for unless he saw me with Lan in Sharo."

"In Sharo? What were you doing there?", demanded Hub's mother. She watched her son squirm under her intense gaze and waited for a response.

After several failed attempts to come up with an excuse MegaMan opted for an edited version of the truth. "Mama I've been fighting Nebula on my own since they took Lan away from me. I was in Sharo because I felt my link to Lan strengthen, so I went straight to the source."

Mrs. Hikari realized what had been going on these last four months. "Then the mysterious navi that's been appearing and attacking Nebula is you. You've been fighting a one man war against a net mafia. Hub how could you do something so reckless?"

Quick to defend himself Hub answered, "This is something that I had to do. They took Lan from me and they have to pay. You can't honestly tell me that you didn't want revenge on them for what they did to our family."

"Yes, but you could've been killed.", said Haruka. She did want to pay Nebula back, but not at the expense of her remaining son.

"I'm sorry that I rushed off like this, but I couldn't let them get away with what they did to our family. After 'Lan's death' I dedicated myself to bringing Regal and his syndicate down." MegaMan fought back the anger he felt in his heart as he saw flashbacks of that horrible day. Every time those memories resurfaced he could feel a foreign power growing inside of him. It was a destructive, evil power that he was all too willing to unleash on Nebula as he had done to numerous Darkloids as of late.

"I understand how you feel. Hub you have to be very careful when you fight. I'd thought that I had lost Lan and I can't lose you too. If something had happened to you it would have destroyed myself and your father. Please try to consider all sides before rushing into something like this." She felt some measure of relief when MegaMan nodded. "Some times you are just too much like your little brother.", she muttered.

MegaMan heard Haruka and smiled knowing just how right she was. Before he had been diagnosed with HBD he and Lan behaved so much like each other. More often than many suspected Hub was the one leading them both into trouble. He still remembered when he and Lan had filled their father's shampoo bottle with hair dye. He still laughed just thinking about his father walking around for several days with bright pink hair. That prank had been a result of Yuuichiro spending too much time at work, so the twins decided to force him to stay home...even if it meant wounding his pride to do it. To their immense joy Yuuichiro had stayed and played with them the whole week to avoid another stunt like that. The twins ruled their family and they knew it.

Haruka heard a loud knocking at the front door and she went to check on it. "Hub go back in their with our guest and make sure nothing gets out of hand.", she said walking towards the front door. When she opened the front door she found her husband and the Colonel from Sharo. "Well I can guess why you are here.", she said threateningly.

Yuuichiro motioned for her to relax while he and the Colonel entered the home. Dr. Hikari lead them to the living room where he and the Colonel met with some unexpected guests.

"The escaped prisoners!", the Colonel shouted turning to Dr. Hikari and his wife for an explanation. His nephew continued having his glaring contest with Zero and was losing pitifully.

"Escaped prisoners?", asked Haruka surprised. She turned to Axl and demand, "What is he talking about?"

Axl was glad that he was on the other side of the room when his mother demanded her explanation. Laughing nervously he began to answer, "Well we were kind of...arrested by the MP's. Apparently we ended up inside of one of Sharo's military warehouse districts."

"So you broke out.", said MegaMan stunned by his brother's disregard for Sharo's laws.

Denise stood up and said, "Well my teleportation device dropped us in the wrong area and none of like being arrested for an honest mistake."

"Teleportation device?", asked the two Sharo natives and Dr. Hikari. The two soldiers believed that such a device would be abused by Nebula if they got their hands on it and decided that they would have to find some way to get it and Dr. Wildman into their protective custody. Dr. Hikari on the other hand was bursting with curiosity and wanted to examine the device top to bottom.

Denise recognized the looks on the Colonel's and Laika's faces. "Don't even think about it boys. Even if I did consider turning the device over to you it wouldn't do you any good. Moving all of us from one place to another caused it to explode, so you see there is really nothing left of it for Nebula to steal. The only ones that know that it even existed are in this room...", she moved closer to both of them glaring holes right through their faces and she whispered daring them to disagree, "...and that's where it's going to stay."

Laika assumed that it would be easier to deal with her than Zero and spoke up. "It still doesn't pardon your actions in Sharo. You violated base security and you (points to Axl) somehow managed to pose as me."

Zero smiled and said, "...and there's nothing that you can currently do about it. In case you've forgotten we are not on Sharo soil which translates into us being outside of your jurisdiction." The blonde's smile widened when Laika realized that his bluff was already being called. Zero knew that Laika was going to try to trick them back onto his territory so that they could get their hands on Denise. _"Maybe I should help them and throw her to them...Nah, I better not. She's the only one that can get this damn collar off of me and I seriously doubt that she'd ever consider it if I did something like that. Plus I'd have to deal with Axl and while he's not the best soldier around he's certainly no pushover either."_

"I think that it's time for you two to leave.", stated Mrs. Hikari as she stood and walked towards the door.

Seeing that they currently had no other choice the two Sharo natives walked to the opened door. As they passed through Laika heard Axl say, "Bye-bye Liki-chan." The blue haired teen felt his left eye twitching violently hearing that annoying nickname. Someone in DenTech city had given it to him, but for the moment he couldn't remember who.

Once the two soldiers were gone Yuuichiro and Haruka made a quick check to be certain before returning their attention to the Reploids and Denise. "So, might I ask whom you all are?"

Zero stood and walked toward Yuuichiro. "I'm Zero, the one with brown hair is X, the young lady with blonde hair is Palette, the one with purple hair is Layer, and the evil bitch is Dr. Denise Wildm-"

"SIT!", Denise growled.

Zero was again eating the Hikari's floor. Haruka and Yuuichiro were torn between laughing at Zero and making sure that he was ok. When the Reploid pulled himself up he glared at Denise who just smirked at him. Everyone knew that Denise was taunting him and the swordsman really wanted to strangle her then and there.

Axl stepped up and said, "My name is Axl, but...you know me more commonly as...", he leaned in closer and said, "Lan." Axl pulled back and watched many emotions pass over his father's face. _"Let's see...anger, sadness, confusion, disbelief, joy, and hope."_

Yuuichiro turned to his wife and Hub for confirmation. Both nodded and Dr. Hikari tried to pull Lan into a hug. Unfortunately he couldn't seem to force his son to move towards him. Before he could question why Lan moved forward and hugged his father being careful not to crush him. "Lan I thought for sure that you were dead. What happened? Where have you been? Why do you look so different? And what did your mother tell you about hair dye?"

Everyone except Lan and his father laughed at the last question.

Axl pulled back and gently made his father sit down next to his mother on the couch. "Mom and Dad I've got something very important to tell both of you. I need you both to listen and try not to interrupt. Any questions that I can answer I will at the end, ok?"

Both parents nodded and waited for their youngest to continue.

"When Dark Protoman used that device on us it sent us into an alternate universe. Chaud and I were thrown in different parts of that world in different points in time. I don't know much about Chaud's life there, but I can tell you about my own.", said Axl watching his parents intently.

"Where is Chaud?", asked Dr. Hikari.

Zero raised his hand and said, "Yo, right here. Though I ask that you don't tell my father that I'm still alive."

Haruka placed her hand on her husband's and said, "I've agreed with our sons to adopt 'Zero' into our family. As soon as you can I want you to take care of it. We'll talk more about it later on tonight." She had planned to discuss the details about it with Yuuichiro before they went to bed and she already knew that he would agree once he heard her arguments. Being a father and seeing Chaud's relationship with Mr. Blaze made the scientist angry that some people could have that title. This was the perfect way to give Chaud a good, happy life.

"Alright. Go Lan..er Axl.", said Yuuichiro already beginning to work on the details of an adoption like this. Zero and Axl still looked like they were only about twelve or thirteen years old. Too be he didn't know that Zero was actually 315 years old counting his life as a human while Axl was only 79. Of course Axl was not very mature for his age except in a few rare and profound moments of insight.

"It's ok dad. I respond to either one.", said Axl taking a seat on the other couch. "When I was dropped into that world I was left near the waste materials that were highly radioactive. By the time Denise found me my body was suffering from extreme radiation poisoning and most of me was already starting to break down at the molecular level. She took my battered body back to her lab and performed a process similar to what you did with Hub. My mind and soul were transferred from the decaying flesh to a new body."

Yuuichiro interrupted accusing, "You still stole somebody else's body. Lan how could you?"

Denise grabbed Yuuichiro's mouth and held it shut with her hand. "Neither of us stole a body. Just wait and listen before you go postal like that."

Axl smiled and watched his father lean back into the couch. When he thought back on he'd phrased it he wasn't surprised to see how his father misunderstood so easily. "In the world Chaud and I were sent to there are beings called Reploids. Reploids are machines designed to be as close to human as possible. They can do anything humans can like eating and sleeping. They can even have children if they want to." He smiled seeing his father's look of disbelief, but that smile vanished when he saw his mother looking at him suspiciously. "No mom I don't have any children.", he quickly said before anything could happen. "Papa, I'm a Reploid now."

"Lan don't be silly. Machines can't do all of that...someday maybe, but not yet.", said Yuuichiro. He believed that his son had a really overactive imagination at times or maybe it was a side effect of the machine Dark Protoman used on Lan and Chaud.

Knowing that actions speak louder than words Axl summoned his basic armor. In a bright flash of light the black armor covered his body and the seams between the armor vanished. "Now do you believe me papa?", he asked already knowing the answer.

Yuuichiro's eyes began to water up and he realized why he couldn't move Lan earlier. Lan's heavy metal insides were just too difficult for a human to move. "Oh I'm so sorry Lan. I believe you now...it's just...so difficult to believe."

"Not a problem papa. I'm just glad that you are taking this well.", replied Axl. He smiled and decided to show off a bit. "I should also tell you that I was designed as a 'New Generation' Reploid. Denise built me to be the most advanced Reploid around.", he said using his copy ability to take on the form of Yuuichiro.

The other Hikari's mouths hit the floor seeing another Yuuichiro smiling at them. Dr. Hikari felt like his was looking at his evil twin seeing the smile on Lan's face. While still in Yuuichiro's form Lan went on to explain about the Maverick wars, his part in Red Alert, and joining the Maverick Hunters. Dr. Hikari wasn't surprised to hear that his son fought to protect the innocent in that world and took most of it without blinking. That changed when Lan told him about his body's evolution as a result of the virus that tried to kill him. Yuuichiro's eyes sparkled with curiosity and he began discussing the technology behind it with Denise.

Haruka informed them that everyone would be staying in their home until better arrangements could be made. Axl and MegaMan still had their room while Zero and X took the couches in the living room. The guest rooms went to Layer, Palette, and Denise. Palette objected wanting to stay with Axl, but Haruka thought that wasn't such a good idea given that Axl was the Reploid equivalent of a teenager.

Zero lifted his head and said, "Mrs. Hikari I think that something's burning."

Sure enough Haruka had forgotten to check on her meat spaghetti that she had been preparing for her husband. "Well I guess that were are going to eat out tonight.", she said regretfully.

"Let's have curry.", said Lan.

"Same old Lan. He'll never change.", said MegaMan as they left the house.


	12. A new future

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 12

After getting back from the Curry shop Lan was more than pleased. MegaMan and the others were still not sure how even a Reploid could 'down' sixteen servings without getting stomach pains. Denise and Yuuichiro theorized that the teen had somehow developed a subspace pocket inside of his stomach that allowed him to eat nonstop.

Finally everyone made it back to the Hikari household and started to get ready for bed. As Dr. Hikari had expected the NetSavior Commissioner called. "Hello Kifune. What can I do for you?", greeted Yuuichiro.

The large man on the other end of the line looked at the screen to see the doctor's face. "Dr. Hikari I hate to bother you this late at night, but I hear that you've got some rather...interesting guests."

Yuuichiro knew that Laika and/or the Colonel had spoken to the Chief in an attempt to apprehend Dr. Wildman. _"This is low especially for them."_, he thought. "Yes I do have some special guests right now and I'd like to get back to them. I can only assume that Laika and the Colonel have been in contact with you."

Kifune sputtered knowing that he'd been caught. After a few seconds he managed to recompose himself. "Yes, that is true. We need to think about Dr. Wildman's safety right now. The knowledge that she undoubtedly possesses will be too tempting of a target for Nebula to pass up. As long as she is with you her life is in danger, but we have a special task force that could handle protecting her."

"And let me guess…the special task force includes Laika.", replied Yuuichiro. The only way to fight Nebula was with Crossfusion and right now there were only a few NetSaviors with that ability. Yuuichiro felt something tap on his should and he turned around to see Denise standing off to the side where the Commissioner couldn't see her.

Denise moved to where Kifune could see her and said, "I've already got all the protection that I need right here. As you no doubt have heard I've got my own Crossfusion members protecting me, so I don't see how my 'well-being' is any of your concern."

Kifune looked over the image of the brunette scientist glaring at him. He had to admit that she was quite a beauty and very intelligent to have developed her own Synchro-chips without the Net Police finding out about it. "I'm sorry my dear, but the risks are just too high. We can't afford to let Nebula get anymore power than they already have."

"Then they won't get her. I can promise you that Chief.", called another voice from the living room door. It turned out that Zero was also listening in to the conversation and didn't like where it was going. He walked up to the screen and introduced himself. "My name is Zero and I'm as good as, if not better, than any NetSavior you've got right now. Me and my friends will even come in tomorrow and let you test our abilities if that's what it takes to get you off of our backs."

The Commissioner considered Zero's words carefully and then nodded in approval. "If you can prove that she is safe with you lot then I won't put any pressure on you to put Dr. Wildman in protective custody. Understand that if I don't like what I see I'll take her tomorrow and give her to my men."

"That's not a problem, but I can promise that you won't find it necessary.", replied Zero. "Good night.", he said before ending the call. The swordsman turned back to Denise and said, "Don't worry about it. We won't let anything happen to you…(whispers) until after you take this collar off of me."

Denise heard what he'd said and smiled. "You know I could hurt you for that, but after you helped me out just now I think that I won't." She turned to Dr. Hikari and said, "Good night. I'll see you in the morning. There are some things that I'd like to discuss with you."

"Alright, sure." After that Dr. Hikari and everyone else went to bed. Tomorrow was sure to be an interesting day.

* * *

The first to wake was Zero, Yuuichiro, and Denise. Zero was using the large living room as a place to practice with his sword. He didn't extend the blade because he didn't want to risk slicing any of the furniture to pieces. True, he wasn't likely to miss, but he didn't want to chance anything.

Denise and Yuuichiro met in the kitchen the he asked, "So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Dr. Wildman held up her hand and said, "Not yet. Must…have…caffeine." She pulled the freshly made coffee from the coffee maker and poured herself a cup. The doctor practically inhaled the steaming hot beverage before going back for more. After several cups of straight coffee she looked at Dr. Hikari. "I'd like to get a job at Sci-Labs…but as you know I don't have any records in this world."

"So you'd like my help.", said Yuuichiro knowing where she was leading this conversation. "I can't just give you your own lab or anything like that, but I can hire you on as a research assistant. It works out fine when you consider that the last one just quit. It turns out that he just couldn't handle the enormous workload that I was giving him." With a regretful look on his face he added, "I lose more research assistants that way."

"Well how bad can it be?", she asked. Denise watched Dr. Hikari pull out a laptop and start it up.

After it was booted up he selected several folders and said, "The worst part is getting them to catalogue all of the research. Take a look."

Doing as the other scientist asked Denise looked at the documents contained within and felt a strange sense of dejavu. The documents were about as well organized as her own until Axl made her go back and organize it. "Well this will be simple enough. I'd say about eighteen hours should cover it."

Dr. Hikari looked at her in surprise and asked, "You like working late too?" When she nodded he smiled and said, "This is great. I've needed an assistant like you for years, but I could never find anyone that could keep up. Saddly even Famous quit after three days, well he demanded to be transferred actually and got it out of sympathy."

Zero had been listening in and thought to himself, _"Birds of a feather…"_ He knew that those two geniuses working together could generate endless possibilities, but if Denise had too much say then Zero would end up in a great deal of pain as the collar around his neck reminded him.

Back in their own conversation Dr. Hikari and Dr. Wildman were already plotting their next experiment until Yuuichiro asked about Reploids. Denise was all too eager to answer her fellow scientist's questions and give him the full history of Reploids. She told him about how Dr. Thomas Light for her world had created X as the first Reploid. He was surprised to find out that Thomas was actually his own father's parallel self. Even more interesting was that Thomas had created X to be his son before modifying him to be a combat Reploid.

"So why couldn't Grandfather have children?", he asked.

Denise looked away with a sad expression and answered, "His wife died of complications during childbirth. She was doing fine until the doctors found that she had severe internal bleeding. The equipment had a faulty circuit in it, so the doctors didn't know that there was a problem until it was too late. She and the baby lost their lives that day and I think that he lost a part of himself too." When she turned back to Yuuichiro he could see tears in her eyes. "Thomas' wife was…my older sister."

Dr. Hikari looked at her and said, "But wouldn't that mean that you are…"

Denise nodded before the other scientist could finish. "Yeah I'm older than I appear. One of the benefits of nanotechnology is that I don't age as quickly as others. To be honest those that use nanotech usually live up to three times as long as a normal human."

"Ah…so you are older than you seem. How much older are you actually?", asked Dr. Hikari.

Dr. Wildman's eyes narrowed and she answered curtly, "A woman's true age is NOBODY'S business except for her own."

Yuuichiro felt the air in the room drop about twenty degrees when his future assistant advanced on him. It was like being face to face with Bass and the Grave Beast making the brunette extremely nervous. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. Please forgive me."

"Will you stop doing that to my dad please?", asked an annoyed voice from the door. Axl walked into the room and looked at his dad. "Don't worry about her. Dr. Wildman's bark is a lot worse than her bite."

Dense mentally noted that her 'son' didn't call her mom. _"He must be mad that I scared his father a little too much. Dr. Hikari is still looking for the quickest way out of this kitchen. I might as well apologize to him now and get it over with."_ Sighing she set her coffee down and turned back to her future boss. "I'm sorry about that. I get…a little moody when people ask about my age."

Axl scoffed and said, "That's an understatement. The last guy that asked her age got his left arm broken."

Denise looked a little embarrassed and muttered, "It was a fracture not a broken arm…exactly."

Zero snickered hearing the evil doctor's predicament. He could believe that she would be a violent banshee if someone made the mistake of asking her age. Then again he wouldn't be surprised if she attacked someone for looking at her wrong. "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll meet you guys at Sci-Labs in time for the meeting with the Commissioner."

"Where are you going?", asked Axl.

The swordsman turned around and he had a look of sadness on his face. "I'm visiting…my grave.", he said before walking out of the front door.

"_Why is he going to see his grave?"_, they all thought after the door shut. There was an uncertainty in the air after hearing Zero's intended destination. Everyone was worried about Zero including Dense despite her cruelty towards the reploid.

* * *

Twenty minutes later Zero was standing in front of the grave that he never thought that he'd see…his own or rather grave that was supposed to be his. He was surprised to see a large number of flowers around his grave stone.

"He was quite a hero you know."

The blonde swordsman turned around to see Yai Ayano and five maids right behind her holding more flowers. "Alright ladies, replace those flowers.", she ordered.

Zero watched as the maids and Yai exchanged the old flowers with fresh ones. After they were done Yai dismissed her maids and stood there staring at the grave. Zero could see the young girl was fighting back tears even now. "Did Mr. Blaze make such a rather extreme grave?"

The Ayano heiress growled loudly and shouted, "THAT HEARTLESS BASTARD DIDN'T DO A DAMNED THING FOR HIS SON. THIS MARVEL WAS ALL MY DOING." The shorter blonde took several deep breaths and recomposed herself before she spoke again. "He never cared about his son, just his company. That creep was content to give Chaud a head stone and nothing more. I couldn't let him do that, so I made this in memory of Chaud Blaze."

He wasn't surprised with his father's lack of investment in the grave, but Yai had really gone all out and that did surprise him. He half expected to see huge water fountains and stone statues. "So you really cared about him then?"

Yai nodded. "Yes I do. When I first met him he such a jerk to everyone that he talked to and that was if he even talked to you. People have always said that I try to make myself seem superior to those around me, but Chaud was worse than me."

"Sounds like you hated him.", commented Zero. He remembered when he acted like that and he was disgusted by how he acted back then. He'd built that façade to protect himself and it was Lan that eventually coaxed him out of his shell.

The heiress shook her head and smiled sadly. "It's not like it sounds. When I first met him I did hate Chaud more than anyone else…but over time I learned to see behind his mask. I wouldn't have bothered if Lan hadn't told me that the guy was actually nice once you got to know him." She had a dreamy look in her eyes, but it faded and turned into one of regret. "He was like that because of his dad, not that you could really call that guy a real father. Despite all of that Chaud always tried his hardest to protect those that he came to view as his friends and I'm lucky to have been considered one of them."

Zero listened to Yai and found it odd that she would say such things to a complete strange. _"Perhaps my 'death' hurt her more than I thought."_

"I never told the big lug this, but he was really a nice guy deep down." Yai looked away and muttered, "…and he was really hot."

Zero fought back a chuckle knowing that a normal human never would've been able to hear what she said. He'd known that Yai did have some feelings for him, but he'd never been quite sure what they were. Numerous times he recalled seeing Yai and Annetta fighting over him. He wasn't sure if Yai actually liked him or just didn't like Annetta that much. "I'm sure that he knows how you really feel about him.", said Zero.

Yai's eyes widened and a faint blush covered her cheeks. "Let's hope not. He'd never let me live it down and we would jump straight to fighting."

This time Zero did chuckle and he replied, "You never know, he might have surprised you."

"_That's strange. Just a minute ago this guy was talking about Chaud like he was still alive and now he's talking about him like he's dead. Well obviously Chaud's dead, but why did he phrase it the way that he did earlier?"_ Yai was deep in thought until the other blonde set him hand on her shoulder. "Oh sorry. I guess that I zoned out there for a second."

"Not a problem. I have be going anyway." Zero walked past her and reached the end of the row.

"You never did tell me your name.", said Yai. "Mine is Yai Ayano."

Zero smiled and said, "My name is Zero…that's all"

"But wait a person can't-", she turned to the Reploid only to find that she was alone, "-have just a first name." She had to admit to herself that this new guy was cute too, but she still missed Chaud. She regretted never having told her crush exactly what she felt for him and now it was too late.

"Hey Yai. Paying Chaud a visit.", said the cheerful voice that could only belong to Yai's greatest enemy next to Dr. Regal.

"Hi Annetta, how are you doing?", she said through gritted teeth. Before the red head could answer Yai rushed off saying, "Well that's good to know. You'll have to excuse me, I've got work to do."

* * *

Across town Yuuichiro, Dr. Wildman, and the other Reploids were at Sci-Labs waiting for Zero to show up. The Commissioner was eyeing the teens trying to assess their abilities and eagerly looking for any faults that he could use to secure Denise. He didn't like playing dirty, but he couldn't allow Regal to gain anymore of an advantage than he already had over them.

Behind the Commissioner Laika and Searchman were making their own assessments of the Reploids. They already knew that Zero wasn't a threat to be taken lightly, so now they needed to know just what the other's were capable of and where their loyalties were.

The Colonel was also watching the youths with interest. He was paying extra close attention to Axl since the boy had not only posed as his nephew, but played his part so well that Sharo's military had been made to look like a bunch of fools by him.

Yuuichiro walked over to Kifune and pulled him away from the others. "Once these kids have proven themselves to be competent guards I wanted you to know that Denise is going to be hired on as my assistant."

Kifune's eyes bugged out hearing that statement. "You mean that you actually convinced that poor woman to work as your personal assistant? I give her a week before she quits just like the last one."

Unfortunately Denise's sharp hearing caught Kifune's statements. She turned a glare at him that made both Laika and the Colonel take a step back. Axl stepped in and calmed her down before she did something evil to the Commissioner. After all the last thing that they needed was Denise getting herself arrested. _"I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too."_, she thought to herself. And by dog she meant Manabe who always seemed to be hanging on Kifune and agreeing with everything that the large man said.


	13. Axl's Revenge

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 13

Kifune led the five Reploids down into the training facility for net agents. On one side he had the Reploids line up and on the other he had Laika and Searchman on the other. "Now the first test will be a timed match against CF Searchman," informed the Commissioner.

Laika's eyes widened and his gaze quickly traveled to Zero. The blonde swordsman was eagerly awaiting this test. Laika on the other hand was more than a little worried about going head to head with Zero. The soldier didn't protest, but only because of his strict training.

Palette and Layer knew that they would have to take it easy on the poor boy, but judging from the look on Axl's face he wasn't going to be as nice. They all knew that X would restrain himself, so there was no real concern there.

Axl grinned eager to get revenge on Laika for his snotty attitude when they first met. He'd degraded everyone of Lan's skills and now the former human was going to make the soldier eat his words. _"I guess good things really do come to those that wait."_

"_Lan don't do it,"_ said Hub across their link. He could easily tell what his little brother was planning from the evil gleam in the Reploid's eyes.

The black Reploid crossed his arms and pouted for a few minutes before he realized something. _"Hub's in there and he can't stop me."_ Axl's grin reappeared and his eyes narrowed on Laika.

Mega knew as soon as Axl grinned that it was out of his hands. It was times like this that he really hated his life. He wanted to be out in the real world and be able to touch and feel again.

Yuuichiro, Manabe, Kifune, and Denise moved to the control booth to observe the tests.

Inside Denise's mind the brunette was cackling at Laika's misfortune. It was bad enough that the boy was going to be the target of Axl's revenge, but to add Zero's wrath to the mix was plain cruel._ "I doubt that the kid will ever recover from this one,"_ she thought with pity.

"Alright, first will be Laika and um…X. Is that really you name?" Kifune found it strange that anyone would name their child X. It was the strangest name that he'd ever seen and it didn't help that the Reploid didn't have a last name either.

When Axl heard the question he opened a secure line to X and said, "I told you that you should've adopted our last name at the very least."

X ignored Axl and responded to Kifune. "Yes my name is X. My father wanted my name to be unique."

"_It was unique alright,"_ thought Mega Man. He couldn't picture his grandfather naming anyone such a bizarre name.

Kifune didn't press the matter further after Yuuichiro suggested that they get on with the tests. "Very well…Your objective is to take down Laika within twenty minutes. Each of you must accomplish the same goal within the same time limit." When everyone nodded in understanding the Commissioner sat back down in his chair and said, "Begin."

The Dimensional Area enclosed the training grounds and a new terrain filled the room. It was obvious that Kifune had chosen this one to give the Sharo NetSavior the advantage. There were caves and large boulders to use for hiding places.

X engaged his regular armor wanting to keep his Ultimate Armor as his ace in the hole. Using Dr. Light's advanced scanners he quickly located his opponent. _"Remember X you have to go easy on him. He's only a human and is very fragile compared to a Reploid."_ "MEGABUSTER!"

The energy bolts tore through the boulder concealing Laika. "Scope Gun!" Laika targeted the ceiling trying to bring the roof down on top of the other guy.

X figured out the teen was up to and aimed his shot at Laika's. The blue bomber had calculated the trajectory so that his attack deflected Laika's right over his own head.

The soldier dodged the crumbling ceiling and countered. "Mini-Boomer, battle chip in." Several bombs went flying at X and threw him into the wall.

"Charged Shot!" The blue sphere collided with the ground in front of Laika and threw him backwards several feet. Before Laika could react X was on top of him with his 'MegaBuster' in the boy's face.

Denise and Yuuichiro were pleased with X's accomplishment. It had taken the blue Reploid a total of five minutes to win his match.

Palette and Layer volunteered to go after X. They took a little longer (eight minutes for Palette and six for Layer) to win their individual matches. Finally they made it around to Axl's turn. The black Reploid had a sadistic grin on his face letting his friends know that all hell was about to break loose.

"_Please tell me that he's not going to transform into anything,"_ thought Zero and Denise. They both wanted to keep Axl's copy ability a secret as long as possible. Such a sneaky move would prove invaluable against Nebula.

"Ready Liki-chan," taunted Axl as the two stared each other off.

"_Wait! I remember who first violated my name like that. It was that irritating, cocky brat…Lan Hikari. Even in death that kid spites me."_ Laika figured that Lan had cursed him with that horrible nickname somehow.

As soon as the Commissioner said begin Denise and all of the Reploids looked away expecting the worse. When nothing happened they all looked back at the battle field and found that Axl had managed to disappear from view.

Up in the control booth the Commissioner and Yuuichiro were desperately looking for the missing fighter. Yuuichiro looked at Denise with the unspoken in his eyes and found his new assistant's mouth hanging open and her face very pale. He leaned down so that only she could hear him and asked, "Where did he go? What's he up to?"

Dr. Wildman knew exactly what her little boy was about to do and she couldn't stop him. Meeting Yuuichiro's gaze she said, "Keep watching…and pray that Laika get out of this alive."

Dr. Hikari's eyes bulged and he quickly spun around. As soon as he did something or rather someone lit up the battlefield. There were explosions everywhere and several forced the Reploids on the sideline to jump for cover.

All over the battlefield those present could hear a maniacal laughter and more explosions. It was obvious to Zero that his rival was jumping from place to place while unloading everything that he had on poor Laika. _"I seriously wonder whether or not he's going to make it out of there. WOAH! I better worry about myself first."_ He dodged several more shots that appeared to be coming from Axl's 'Ray guns'. "If I survive I'm going to kick his ass."

At the end of the twenty minutes the Dimensional Area generators had reached their limit and expired due to the brutal punishment that Axl had inflicted upon them. Most of the training ground was in ruins and would take a few months to repair to usable condition. Laika and Axl were nowhere to be seen.

They start looking around the rubble for the missing teens. "Hiya guys," a voice called from behind Zero. Everyone turned around the see Axl with his 'Particle Cannon' held firmly in his hands. The gage on the side showed that the Reploid had completely exhausted it's energy.

"_So that's why he stopped…he ran out of weapons,"_ thought Zero. He pulled out his Z-Saber and started walking towards his teammate. "We need to have a little talk."

The teen knew better than to believe that. Axl quickly hid behind a mortified Yuuichiro. _"What's wrong with him?"_

MegaMan had heard the question enter his brother's mind and Mega mentally replied, _"What's wrong with him? Have you looked around yourself lately?"_

Lan winced at the other Hikari's volume. He had to resist the urge to massage his ears since the voice had been in his head and really didn't affect his ears. The Reploid looked around and thought to himself, _"Well I guess that I did get 'a little' carried away."_

MegaMan just glared at his little brother. The blue navi had used this area to train for his battles against the Darkloids and now he'd have to find an alternate area to train. On top of that they still hand't found Laika yet.

After sixteen minutes of searching Palette finally dug Laika out from under a collapsed segment of the concrete wall. Thankfully it had landed in a position where the boy had been protected from the major damage, but he was out cold and covered in numerous cuts.

Dr. Hikari glared at his youngest son while the medics came in and tended to Laika. The scientist made a mental note to himself to have a **long** talk with his boy tonight about this. For now he was just happy that Sharo's NetSavior hadn't been killed.

Axl chuckled nervously and said, "Well atleast he lost within twenty minutes."

Manabe was shocked speechless by the teen's lack of restraint. Kifune couldn't argue that the boy wasn't capable. In all his years he'd never seen such an insane display of power even if it wasn't controlled.

Denise grabbed Axl by the arm and led him off to the side. "Was that really necessary?"

"Sorry," the former human apologized. "Atleast I didn't aim right at him. All that I did was try to scare the life out of him."

Dr. Wildman nodded and muttered, "I'd say that you accomplished that without a problem." The only good news was that her son hadn't brought out his upgraded armor. The armor doubled the destructive power of Axl's weapons and gave them a far greater energy reserve. The down side was that Axl was always starved afterwards as Denise had discovered after their tests back home. _"That boy ate everything in the mess hall."

* * *

_

Two hours after Axl's rampage the scientists and construction crew had finished assessing the damage. It was worse than when Nebula had attacked the facility for the Synchro-chips.

Laika was in the infirmary relaxing from his brutal ordeal. When he'd awaken he verbally tore into Axl claiming that the other boy was a madman.

Zero grumbled because he didn't get his chance to fight Laika. "As soon as your up we'll have our round."

Laika paled and said, "I don't feel so well."

Axl refrained from snickering knowing that it had more to do with the idea of dealing with Zero rather than his injuries.

Dr. Hikari came in and said, "It's going to take atleast five months to get everything back up and running in top condition. It would go faster if we had more funding to hire more workers, but right now we're at our limit."

Zero, X, and MegaMan all turned to glare at Axl.

"Where did you go," demanded MegaMan. He could feel that his little brother was still somewhere nearby, but Lan wouldn't let him sense where. _"Coward!"_

"_Maybe I can find the money for them, but where? There's no way in hell that I'm going to ask 'him' for the money and it's not like he'd believe that I'm his son anyway…not that he'd actually care either way. Maybe I can ask…"_ Zero's train of thought was interrupted by a groan from Laika. Apparently the nurse had pressed too hard on one of Laika's cuts while changing the bandages. _"Well that explains where he disappeared to. Hehehe…he's still got to torture soldier boy. Doesn't he think that Laika's had enough?"_

As if to answer the question the 'nurse' wrapped the bandage around Laika's leg tighter than necessary earning another groan.

Zero walked out snickering at Lan's vicious streak. He decided to seek out an alternate source of funding for Sci-Labs. Hopefully he could use some of his old contacts to bring in some money or run a few mercenary jobs. There were still a number of criminals in the human world that the Net Police had yet to apprehend. Given Zero's level of skill it would be an easy matter to find a few of them.

* * *

Dr. Regal entered the main chamber of his satellite. In his hand was a Dark chip, but Ms. Yuri knew from the way the rogue scientist was holding it that it was much more than a normal Dark chip.

"So whatcha got there," she inquired.

Regal smirked and said, "This is going to give Dark Protoman the power boost that he needs to deal with those new brats."

Ms. Yuri chuckled and decided to rain on his parade. "I doubt that it's going to be enough."

Dr. Regal angrily demanded, "Why? What makes you say that? Do you have any idea of just how much power this Dark chip contains?"

"No, but given the information I just came into possession of…I doubt that it'll make any noticeable difference." She could already see a vain pulsing on the scientist's forehead. It was so easily to get under his skin some times that it wasn't worth the effort. "Yes you see one of the new guys seems to have completely trashed the NetSaviors training grounds. From what I heard the only thing left was the building supports. It seems that they are even more powerful than you gave them credit for."

"Let me get this straight…one of them was so powerful that they completely destroyed the facility?" When Ms. Yuri nodded Regal decided to rethink his plan of attack. "We must find out more about these children and their navis. Ms. Yuri I want you to handle this personally. Dig up anything that you can on them. I want to know everything that you can find on them."

Yuri chuckled and said, "You're looking for a hostage, right?"

"Of course," sneered Dr. Regal. _"Perhaps they can be turned to my side? Let's see just what kind of people they really are."_

Not wanting to spend anymore time in the presence of her employer Yuri walked out of the room and to the shuttle. It was a long trip back to Earth especially since she had to be careful not to be caught. "This should be interesting…"


	14. Aftermath

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

**Reviews:**

**LanHikari2000x:** Yes, I mean that Axl leveled the entire training ground. The training ground was basically one giant room inside of a D.A.

**spoil-sports:** I may try to bring in Zero's absolute zero mode. Nebula will suffer, so there is no worry there.

**dark5523:** I'll be more specific the next time Axl fights. I forget the names of all of his weapons until I go back and play the games again.

**Firehedgehog: **I'm not evil, I'm just misunderstood. -Struck by lightening- Ok, I'm evil.

**jhvh777: **Lan will tell his friends who/what he is when he's ready to do so. And yes Zero is going to ask Yai for help to fix Axl's mess.

**Rose Kitsune.EXE:** I love torturing Laika. He was my least favorite of the good guys and I really couldn't blame him for suddenly not feeling well. Could you?

**one-village-idiot:** Don't worry Zero will get his time in the spot light soon enough. I don't think that I'd be cruel enough to subject Dr. Regal to a 'visit' with Denise. That would end too graphically for this rating.

**Dragon and Sword Master:** Yes I am giving X all of his random armors or atleast those that I can remember. I'm using the Ultimate Armor from X8 because I like it's special attack and the way that it looks. I will bring in Zero's black armor later on after Denise gets ahold of Zero. For the last question you'll have to wait and see.

**HarbringerLady: **Thanks. I try to make them interesting.

**dark5523:** It was taking so long because I had a nasty case of writer's block, but thanks to a friend I'm over it.

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 14

Zero left Sci-Labs telling Dr. Hikari and the others that he would be back as soon as he could. He didn't tell them that he was going out to see if he could get some additional funding for Sci-Labs. Zero didn't want to get their hopes up only to have them crushed.

As soon as the nurse heard the red Hunter say that she smiled and looked at Laika with a wicked grin. _"It's open season on Liki-chan now."_ By 'mistake' the nurse had replaced Laika's painkillers with strong laxatives.

X and Denise started looking around for Axl when they realized that he had disappeared. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the teen Reploid was up to something.

Before long Palette and Layer joined the search for their missing friend.

"Dr. Wildman how much trouble could he possibly get into in this world?" asked X. He had witnessed some of Axl's pranks firsthand and he really didn't want to be a target again anytime soon. _"The last time he pulled something on me he dyed my armor NEON PINK!!! I'll never be able to fully live that one down and I'm sure that the other Hunters still crack jokes about that…incident."_

Rather than answering Dr. Wildman pointed to Laika that rapidly climbed out of his bed and almost knocked both of them down heading towards the bathroom. "Axl strikes again." commented the doctor with a smirk.

X shook his head realizing what had just happened to the poor soldier. He was wondering if/when the black Reploid would think that he'd inflicted enough pain upon Laika. "I say we check the nurses first."

Denise agreed, but knew that her boy would likely have changed again in order to avoid getting caught just yet. _"I wonder where Zero was going?"_ she thought now that she had some free time on her hands. She had offered to help repair the training facility, but Dr. Hikari firmly told her no.

* * *

Outside of a large building in DenTech city Zero stood at the main entrance. _"Well here goes nothing. The worst that could happen is that I get thrown into a psychiatric facility."_ He took a deep breath and then walked into the building. "Security here is a joke." he noted as he made his way into the 'high security' areas.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" said a voice from behind him. It was obvious that the owner was female and angry.

Zero calmly turned around and allowed the girl to get a good look at him. "Sorry about that Yai, but I needed to talk to you about something."

The blonde heiress calmed down when she saw who it was. _"It's the cute guy from Chaud's grave yesterday. I wonder what he could be here for."_ When she snapped out of her trance she immediately asked, "What did you need to talk with me about?"

The swordsman looked around the halls and then back to Yai. "Not here, can we go some place private?"

The blonde girl nodded and led him to her office. The first thing that Zero noticed was the decorations, which consisted mostly of strawberries. "Now what did need to talk with me about?" she asked.

"I wanted to ask you for help with Sci-labs." he said bluntly. "Their training facility was destroyed and we need money to get it repaired."

"Did Nebula attack them again? What happened? Was anyone hurt?" she demanded jumping over her desk. With the syndicate's increasing volume of attacks and brutality she wouldn't be surprised by anything. Yai was curious whether or not the new NetSaviors would really be able to stop Dr. Regal, but her biggest concern was putting an end to Dark Protoman.

Zero shook his head and replied, "Nope, something worse...Axl." He couldn't help chuckling when Yai's eyebrows disappeared into her golden hair. "Axl is a little rough around the edges and has a...slight grudge against Laika. That's pretty much the reason why the facility was all but demolished." Yai's expression the changed to one that Zero had never seen before. "What is it? Is something bothering you?"

Before the swordsman could see more the blond turned around and said in a shaky voice, "It's...it's just that...for a moment you sounded like someone that I used to know."

_"Oh Crap! Surely she couldn't associate my current behavior and speech patterns with 'Chaud'."_ Cautiously he asked, "What do you mean? Who do I remind you of?" He heard a sniffle thanks to his enhanced hearing as a Reploid. _"She's crying...for me._

Looking up to the swordsman with puffy red eyes she managed to get out, "You remind me of my Chaud." The young heiress also thought to herself, _"Even though your ass is tighter and muscles bigger and better looking hair…"_

Fortunately Zero was too freaked about the possibility that his secret was blown to notice the once over that she gave him. He was certain that he couldn't recognized by anyone except those that already knew who he really was. "I'm sorry if I bring back painful memories for. I'll leave if it'll help." The uncertainty in his voice was apparent to both himself and Yai.

Recomposing herself the blond girl forced a smile and said, "That won't be necessary. Now onto business…I want to see with my own eyes just what you three newbies can do before I sign off on anything. In addition if I like what I see then I'd also like to enlist your services for a special event that's coming up in just a few months."

"Sounds reasonable to me," replied Zero regaining his detached expression. Deep inside it hurt him to think that Yai was still pining after him all of this time, but he'd moved on. First he had Iris and now he's got Layer. He was happy with his relationship, but he couldn't help feeling bad about Yai's misfortune.

How do you let someone down when you're supposed to be dead? If only he had the answer to that one. True in some ways he did care about Yai, but he couldn't betray his feelings towards Layer. _"Why does my life keep getting more and more complicated?"_

"Well let's go to Sci-labs and we talk with Dr. Hikari. I'm sure that a demonstration of some sort can be arranged…or you can simply look at the aftermath of one of Axl's 'play sessions'." He grinned when he saw her questioning look. He then explained what he meant. "Axl tends to be very destructive and overly cheerful when he's stomping someone's ass. He acts very childish, but he also makes a fine soldier."

"It makes him sound like Lan. He's the only guy that I've ever known that would say that fighting is fun." Pulling out a small glass bottle of strawberry milk she took a sip. It was her version of stress food and always went well with cheesecake. "Did you know that he loved fighting with Chaud? Come to think of it he also had a problem with Laika. Lan always said that he had Darkloid shoved up his butt."

"_That's Lan for you,"_ Zero thought. "Well let's not just sit around here all day. We need to get to Sci-Labs and get this deal underway."

"Lead the way." Yai called for her driver and soon they were off to see Dr. Hikari and Mr. Famous.

* * *

Back at the hospital X and Dr. Wildman had caught Axl. To guarantee that he didn't go after Laika again and torture that poor boy Denise had Palette stand guard knowing that the young Reploid wouldn't let the boy out of her sight. The only real problem would arise if Axl tried to get her to aide in his revenge.

"You know that he picked up this tendency from you." said X walking into the room with a mug of coffee. He felt that he'd deserved to indulge himself a little after having to capture that cocky black Reploid currently tied up in Dr. Hikari's office.

Both X and Denise smiled fondly upon remembering when they had explained why he was there to Dr. Hikari. Even Yuuichiro had to agree that Lan could get a little over zealous at times, so he didn't object much to Axl's misfortune.

"How long do you think that we'll have to keep him tied up in there?" asked Layer as she pressed her head against the door and strained to hear any conversation going on inside. She had objected to leaving Axl in Palette's hands, but she was overruled by X's authority.

Denise grabbed X by the arm and started pulling him towards the private lab that Dr. Hikari had setup for her and answered, "Give him a few more hours in lockdown and then you can release him." She popped her head back out of her door and added as an after thought, "Just make sure that I don't have any grandkids yet."

A loud thud was heard in Dr. Hikari's office and she knew that her son had been eavesdropping. She couldn't blame him given that his enhanced hearing that made him such a good spy was also useful for listening in on friends and family.

Once inside her office she forced X to sit on an examination table. "Ok X I need you to summon your Ultimate Armor."

"What for," he asked curiously. It was very strange for what knew for Denise to ask for anything. Usually the fiery young woman was demanding or down right manipulative to get what she wanted.

Denise sat down next to X and said, "I can make the basic body for MegaMan to use, but the technology here is too far behind to make effective armor and weapons anytime soon. It'll take me months, maybe even years to construct the necessary equipment and gather the right resources."

X nodded in understanding. "I'll do it, but don't you think that the Ultimate armor is a little bit too much for a boy his age?"

"Axl handles more firepower than that and you don't see a problem there do you? I know that MegaMan can do this and more importantly he'll need it if he's going to fight against this Nebula mafia." Denise turned her head and sighed.

X grabbed her arm and said, "You're not telling me something. I've spend enough time around humans to know when they are holding back something vital and I need to know what you're hiding." When she refused to look into his green eyes he started to put the pieces together. "Oh no…It's MegaMan isn't it. There is something wrong with him."

Denise looked up with sad eyes and answered, "It is a possibility at the moment. When I did a scan on him earlier to determine if he was compatible with a Reploid body I found small traces of corrupted files. What's worse is that they are centered in the region of his cyber brain responsible for morality and ethics." Her eyes started to water, but she fought back the tears. She refused to give up on Hub just because things were starting to look bad.

X summoned the Ultimate Armor and flexed his cannon arm once it fully formed. "So why is this armor so special for saving him?"

"While your father was working with antiquated technology he was a genius when it came to programming. You see the armor was designed so that it purged any corruption from you the moment that you dawn it. Your father never wanted to risk you going insane like so many of your brothers and sisters especially since he was leaving you such powerful weapons." Denise finally looked at X's green eyes and just stared into them. "This is the best chance that we have of saving MegaMan."

"Ok, but I have some questions. Where did the corruption come from? How did you find out about this feature when even I never knew anything about it? How long does he have before it takes over his programming?" X refused to allow her to look away because he knew that his current look could make her talk. He'd perfected getting most humans to talk with certain looks centuries ago, but every so often he'd encounter one that was resistant to his efforts. He wouldn't allow her the luxury of an escape route if he could help it.

Denise knew that he was using his interrogation skills now. Those eyes were no longer friendly, but demanding and highly observant. He'd know the instant she tried to lie or omit anything. "The corruption was introduced before we came here and it erased all traces of where it spread from. In all honesty this thing is burying itself deeper and deeper after every attempt to find it. We've got a week, maybe two if we're lucky, to find it or else MegaMan is going to turn into another one of these Darkloids."

Dr. Wildman tried to pull away under the guise of picking up her own coffee, but X jerked her arm pulling her into his lap. "It's not going to be that doctor. You missed one of my questions and I'd like an answer for it now please."

Denise felt like a cornered animal with a vicious wolf sitting right behind her with it's claws already in her skin. _"Damn it Denise lie! Just don't tell him the truth!"_ She felt X turn her around in his seat and forced her to look at his eyes once more. "I'm waiting Dr. Wildman." he said coldly.

"_It feels like the temperature just dropped by several degrees."_ she thought. Normally she'd be highly resistant to this, but X had managed to get through all of her defenses. The Reploid managed to accomplish something that Zero had failed at repeatedly since day one and now Denise knew the real reason why X no longer interrogated prisoners. Using psychology and body language he could utterly destroy someone if they underestimated him as she had.

She gulped and began, "I found it in a capsule several years ago, so it wasn't used to build Axl."

"WHAT?" he shouted scaring the life out of the poor woman. "Denise you know that by law any civilian or military for that matter would be required to turn such capsules over immediately. The penalty for disregarding that law is execution. It's treated as a capital offense and you of all people should know this."

"I know that X. I just wanted to see if I could crack the protective programming that you father was so famous for when he built and left those capsules behind for you. I was in it simply to see if I could do it not for profit or destruction." Denise wanted to kick herself for being stupid enough to let the truth slip. Her traitorous tongue had gotten the better of her before, but never on something like this. "This is why I didn't tell you…besides I was only able to extract twenty-five percent of the data. The rest was destroyed by an autodestruct that Dr. Light built into the capsule."

X looked at her angrily and spat, "Those capsules always have a personal message from my father to me and thanks to you I'll never know what he would've said to me."

Suddenly the door flew open and Zero walked in with a short blond girl with a shiny forehead. "X? Why is that cold witch in your lap?" He glanced down at Denise and saw something that he never expected to see. Shame and remorse, but the most apparent was her vulnerability.

Zero looked up in X's hardened green eyes and silently demanded an explanation. "It's not your business Zero." Turning his attention back to Denise he said through clenched teeth, "Get started on the rest and I'll be back when I'm actually needed. Till then stay out of my sight."

The two blonds watched as X walked out and slammed the door hard enough to nearly rip it off of it's hinges. Neither had noticed that X was still wearing his Ultimate Armor. Instead they turned their attention back to Denise. "What happened?"

"Something that I deserved for not thinking things through." She got up off of the ground where she'd fallen when X stood and started making a list of things that she was going to need.

Denise shoved the two out of her lab and went to work on whatever she was working on. Zero stormed off after X leaving Yai to wonder what the hell she had just walked into.


	15. Falling Apart

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

**Reviews:**

**Dragon and Sword Master-** Thank you. Zero's black armor is coming, but I'm not sure when I want to work it in.

**Yami Amy Lau-** No, yai hasn't figured Zero out...yet.

**Firehegehog- **Well Axl will be Axl. Enough said.

**Jhvh777- **Thanks for waiting and here's the update.

**A. Mills- **Axl will get his opportunity to torment Regal soon enough. I've been planning that one for a while, but too lazy to get to it.

**Slayer.EXE- **Yeah, sorry about the lack of chapters lately. WB and laziness has that effect on a person.

Thoughts _"blah"_

Chapter 15

"Hey X we need to talk." said the blond swordsman as he quickly caught up to the retreating Hunter. X rarely got angry and never had he struck at someone so harshly even if it was only on the emotional level.

When X felt Zero rapidly approaching behind him he said, "I don't feel like talking about it Zero. It's none of your business anyway." The blue Hunter was caught off guard when he was thrown face first into the ground. He pulled his head out of the destroyed tiles and glared at Zero. "What the hell was that for?"

Instead of answering with words Zero did a spinning kick and sent X into the wall. "Now do you feel like talking or...do I have to keep mopping the floor with your face?" Zero didn't know what was going on, but he was going to find out whether or not X liked it.

X leapt using the wall and pressed Zero up against the other wall leaving a deep impression of the blond Hunter's back. "Just mind your own bus-" The blue Reploid was cutoff when a fist collided with his stomach. Sometimes it really didn't payoff to be modeled so closely to that of a human. X tried to retaliate, but Zero had somehow already gotten to his side and now had him in a choke hold.

"Wow! This is really impressive." Both X and Zero turned to see that Yaito was watching both of them fight. "Before I only suspected that you two were good fighters, but to see both of you in action against one another...it's truly something else. To have such strength without Crossfusion tells me that you two have fought most of your lives and that you are very good at it."

"Excuse me but, who are you?" asked X still in Zero's choke hold. He felt a bit calmer now that he'd had a chance to blow off some steam with one of his partners.

Yai looked both of them over and had to suppress the urge to drool. Both Reploids had torn their shirts open revealing two well built chests. From looking at them she bet that their pecks were rock hard and they had six-packs that are very uncommon amongst teens. _"Must resist, must look away."_ Unfortunately her body beat her mind to a bloody pulp and continued to take in the 'sights'.

Both X and Zero were confused at first with the glazed over eyes watching them until Layer stepped out of a nearby office. The young Reploid followed Yai's example having rarely been able to get Zero to show off any flesh in her presence. It was mostly because the swordsman had issues fully committing himself to her after his last disastrous relationship with Iris.

Realizing what they were staring at Zero placed his cocky grin on his face and said to X, "I think that they like what they see. Don't you?"

It dawned on the blue Hunter just what the swordsman meant and his face turned as red as Zero's armor. He redoubled his efforts to breakout of the choke hold which only further loosened his shirt. He knew that Zero was now laughing at his expense. The Crimson Demon knew that X had always been very modest and shy around women. _"I'm going to kill you Zero!"_

Yaito's eyes widened as her 'hunky soon-to-be bodyguard' had his shirt completely ripped off when X started pulling anything he could to get free. Zero of course only laughed harder since it was highly unlikely that X could get free anytime soon. _"Ask him if he's single."_ Yai thought as Zero made no effort to hide himself from her view.

"Looks like they are drooling now." commented the blond and to X's horror that's exactly what the two observers were doing.

"Come on Zero! Don't do this to me!" X pleaded which only caused the sadist to laugh even harder. What was worse was that unlike other opponents that X had faced Zero's grip didn't loosen at all while he laughed. "I'll talk just please let go."

The swordsman stopped laughing for a moment and his face hardened in consideration. The blue bomber could practically hear the internal debate going on inside Zero's Positronic brain. Finally Zero released him and looked at the girls. "You'll have to excuse me and the pansy much to your displeasure I'm sure."

Both Layer and Yaito were snapped out of their trances when the Hunter's words finally registered. Both girls smirked as the blushing X quickly retreated followed by Zero. "Is he seeing anyone?" asked the heiress.

Layer immediately glared at the small human and snapped, "Yes! He's mine!" If anyone had been present two different colored bolts of electricity could be seen clashing between the two women.

* * *

In her lab Denise started construction on the basic Reploid body that MegaMan would be transferred to. She had neglected to tell anyone, even Axl, that she had a pocket cube with her. The cubes were designed to hold weapons for Reploids in a special pocket in subspace. She had modified several to hold most of her equipment that she hadn't forced Zero to lug to the Hunter HQ. 

If he found out about that one he would certain be hell bent on finding a way around the Three Laws running around inside his head. _"Oh well I better finish this soon or else Axl will be torn up when his brother turns psycho."_

She sighed yet again and stopped what she was doing. "What the heck is wrong with me? I've never really cared about people except those close to me and it's certainly not as though I care about X." The 'child' of Dr. Light had managed to do the impossible and made her feel guilty about something that she knowingly did unlike that virus that she'd been used to create. She knew that trying to break into the capsule was wrong and she knew that reason why X had been so upset with her. _"I wonder if that message for X was in the data I acquired. I didn't really look at it past the few armor specs for the Ultimate Armor."_

If the message was in the data it would go a long way to alleviating her own guilt. "Might as well-" Denise felt a sharp blow to her head before darkness took hold.

* * *

In Dr. Hikari's office Axl had managed to cut the bindings holding him. He waited until Palette had started staring outside at the blue sky and while she was distracted had used some hidden tools to cut himself free. _"You would think that both Mom and X would know to look for hidden tools on or inside my body."_ he thought to himself with a grin. 

Now was the hard part, how to get away from Palette without her alerting his Commander. _"Don't want to hurt her so violence is out. Can't drug her since she hasn't eaten or drank anything in hours."_ He was thinking of hundreds of possible scenarios per second and still couldn't think of an acceptable way to accomplish his escape.

* * *

Outside of the lounge X had stolen a doctor's shirt and was now glaring at the still shirtless Zero. He was always so annoyed at how the blond always had so many humans and Reploids swooning over him with large puppy eyes. 

"So let's talk. I've gotta get back to Yaito and get her approval on a business deal." said Zero as he leaned up against a wall using one foot for support and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

The Crimson Demon was not going to let X leave without an explanation and this pose always seemed to signify the finality of it. With a sigh X began from the beginning when Dr. Wildman had told him about the Ultimate armor and its special feature. He wasn't really surprised that Dr. Light had created such a feature especially since Dr. Light translated into Dr. Hikari. X agreed that the Hikaris were the counterparts of Dr. Light's family making them X's family as well.

When the blue Hunter got to the part where he mentioned the personal messages that Dr. Light usually plants inside of the capsules Zero understood why X had reacted as aggressively as he had. "I'm not saying just let it go, but for Axl's sake at least try to get along with her. From what I saw she was pretty tore up, emotionally speaking, which is surprising considering who we are talking about."

X scowled and muttered, "Can't resist taking a shot at her can you?"

"What was that?" asked Zero. X just shook his head. "So what are you going to do X? We've gotta work with her if we are going to stop Regal and save MegaMan."

The blue bomber sighed and ran his hand through his thick hair. "I don't know, I just don't know." He turned and looked back at Zero. "I've always been able to forgive people in the past for some really horrific things, but…I just can't make myself do it as easily as usual."

Zero chuckled half-heartedly and said, "That's what it means to be human X. You're much closer to humans than you realize."

"How do humans manage to operate with conflicting emotions like this?" he asked almost pleading for an answer.

What could the swordsman say? It's not like he was the master of dealing with emotions. Most of the time he simply buried his emotions behind a mask. "I don't have an answer for that X. There are not always simple solutions or clear paths to take. Life doesn't give us road maps my friend. We can only make our own way in the world."

X nodded and said, "I'm going to go talk to her again. I have this feeling in my circuits that I'll regret it if I don't."

As X walked away Zero thought to himself. _"Good luck X. That woman is intolerable as is. Now how do I get this damn collar off of me?"

* * *

_

The Maverick Hunter quickly retraced his steps back to Dr. Wildman's office. When he went to knock the door slid open. Immediately X knew that something was wrong because he knew from Denise's habits that she always completely closes the doors and usually locks them.

Entering the room he found Dr. Wildman's books knocked off of her desk lying in a mess on the floor. Another red flag in his mind went up. The last indicator that he needed was laying only its side in Denise's chair. It was one of her tools and one end of it had fresh blood on it. _"Oh you've got to be kidding me."_

X reached under the desk and pushed a small red button. When no alarms went off he looked under the desk and found the wires had been cut. _"Too bad that they don't know about our internal communications."_ He tried to reach out to Zero and Axl, but found a powerful jamming signal blocking all communications.

Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to apparently kidnap Dr. Wildman and Axl was going to blow a gasket when he found out.

Running towards the security office X met up with Zero. "I take it that you noticed the little problem too?"

X nodded and replied, "The intruder has kidnapped Denise. Probably waited until after we left to make the snatch."

Zero knew the guilt that X was going to feel after this one and could only sympathize with the blue bomber. "I'll alert security and get Axl while you go after Denise." Sensing that his Commander was about to argue Zero cut him off. "Just do it otherwise the guilt will eat you up."

X didn't hesitate and changed direction. The blue Hunter reached the lab and switched his internal scanners on trying to find out which direction the intruder might have gone. It wasn't like it would be easy to move a body through Sci-Labs without attracting attention, so it should be easy to eliminate certain routes.

* * *

When Zero reached the security station on that floor he reached over the desk ignoring the guard's protests and hit the red button. Immediately reds lights started flashing and alarms rang. 

Reaching over the counter again the blond brought the security guard to his face and said, "Get everyone back there and tell them to find a Dr. Denise Wildman." He proceeded to give the guard a detailed description and then headed back towards the labs.

Elsewhere in the building near the loading dock the intruder smirked at the flashing lights. "Always two steps behind. Time a little distraction." The figure reached into a pocked on the black jacket and pulled out a large remote. "Bombs away."

* * *

X had found a maintenance passage used for all of the massive cables to and from the labs. It was well hidden unless you happened to be a Reploid. The Hunter ran as fast as he could in the direction he thought the intruder would go. _"The loading dock is the obvious place to go since the other way leads to Dr. Hikari's lab."_

Up ahead of the Maverick Hunter a small metal door lie partially open. _"This is definitely the way that they went."_ Before he could reach the door the tunnel seemed to glow and he ran face first into an energy wall.

Picking himself off of the ground he examined the wall and realized that it was in fact the border of a Dimensional Area. "Dimensional Areas mean Darkloids which means that Nebula went through a lot of trouble to get their hands on Dr. Wildman. I'm going to kill them for hurting…my family." Yes he had to admit that through Axl/Lan Denise was a part of his family.

"You should worry more about yourself little man." said a voice from behind him.

X turned around to see which idiot would be deleted today and found Dark Protoman with his sword drawn. He could see that the Darkloid had gained a lot of power recently and was far more evil than the last encounter.

Dark Protoman had claws instead of the usual dulled fingers and where he once had normal teach were long, sharp fangs. The Dark Aura surrounding the dark navi had increased a hundred fold if not more. Overall the once noble navi looked more like a demon than any creature he had ever encountered.

Without thinking X summoned his armor from subspace and charged his Buster Cannon. Only after the fact did he realize that he'd just given away valuable information to the enemy. Dark Protoman now knew that he didn't use a navi or even a PET for that matter.

"Well this is unexpected. I wonder what other secrets we'll be able to pry from your young doctor friend." he taunted. Behind his visor Dark Protoman wondered just how this was possible and what this 'human' was capable of. During the last fight he'd been taken out by the blond with incredible ease and now he was getting to fight another one.

X smirked and said, "If you think that I'm easier than Zero then you are in for a world of hurt."

The Darkloid knew that there could be truth to that and shuddered at the thought, but he had his orders. "Regardless you will find that I've improved a lot since fighting the homicidal blond."

X sweat dropped hearing Dark Protoman, but he had to admit to himself that the Darkloid had Zero pegged right. "Well let's see just how much you've improved."

* * *

Down in the Loading Dock Dr. Wildman's unconscious body was thrown into the back of a delivery truck. The intruder pulled out the keys and started heading for the driver's side. 

"Ma'am we are in lockdown right now and I'm afraid that I can't allow you to leave until the lockdown is lifted and this truck thoroughly searched." said a security guard as he and two others approached the female driver.

"I understand officer. Here are my keys." she said and extended her hand. When the guard reached for them she wrapped her hand around his open fist and slammed him into the truck door while spinning around she jerked his tazer from his vest and fired it at the guard on the right.

The guard on the left started to run shouting, "The intruder is here!" He didn't make it very far before the woman caught up to him and smashed his face into the floor.

Ms. Yuri collected her keys and kicked the first guard in the side before climbing into the truck. "Idiots." she said before driving through the closed gate.

* * *

Author's Note: As always please click the review and leave some feedback. 


	16. A Reason to Fear XMas

Disclaimer: I do not own MegaMan.EXE or MegaMan X.

**Of Souls and Reploids**

Thoughts _"blah"_

**Holiday Special**

Chapter 16

Ms. Yuri's departure through the closed gates set off the alarms unfortunately by the time that security had been able to respond the kidnapper was long gone. To further hinder any efforts to capture her Ms. Yuri had disabled the phone lines out of Sci-Lab and jammed all police frequencies.

This way all well thought out but the biggest obstacle was about to show itself to Sci-Labs and it worked for neither the NetSaviors or Nebula.

* * *

In the skies over the labs data began to materialize catching Laika's attention. The soldier had pulled himself out of bed when the alarms went off and made it to the roof. To say the least he was suprised with what formed. 

Not a single navi, but two navi-shaped reindeer, a sleigh and a evil looking fat man wearing a red coat. The most frigthening feature was the hellfire eyes that seemed to pierce Laika's soul.

"Ho Ho Ho! You bitches have been very naughty this year, very naughty indeed." shouted the fat navi as he descended into Sci-Labs. To add more terror to the situation the Dimensional Area generators stopped responding to Dr. Regal's control and the size of the barrier increased so that it now encompassed nearly all of DenTech city.

"This isn't good." muttered Laika to himself. He wasn't the type to believe in Santa or entertain the idea due to his military upbringing so he was rather annoyed at what he assumed to be Dr. Regal's Darkloid.

* * *

The new Dark Protoman and X were duking it out in the loading docks. In the span of five minutes time they had managed to destroy nine trucks, several thousand dollars worth of equipment and terrify the workers into running away. 

"Buster-Shot!" The blue beam connected with the swordsman and sent him flying into yet another wall. "You can't win this Dark Protoman. I suggest that you surrender or be deleted."

Dark Protoman stood up brush the pavement off of himself and brought out his sword. "Now why would I do that." he said arrogantly not realizing that X had gone easy on him only using 10 of his true strength. The Darkloid jumped into the air and tried to bring it down on the blue hunter only to be tossed away by an exploding wall.

Both navi and reploid watched the new doorway with held breathes. The dust cleared showing a mostly red navi with a red coat and hat. "Ho Ho Ho!"

Neither knew who the new guy was with, but he really freaked them out. His appearance didn't seem to be too different from the Santa Clauses one would see at the mall save for the glowing red eyes.

The unholy fat man moved in holding a bag over his shoulder with one hand and the other hand balled into a fist setting on his hip. "You've both been naughty, very naughty X and Protoman. I've checked my list."

X immediatly protested , "You really should check it twice. I assure that I haven't been bad."

Santa.EXE glared at the blue bomber and said, "Really...then what was that with Dr. Wildman. I believe that you hurt her feelings very badly. Did you ever think about how you would make her feel after that verbal beating?"

X looked away in shame while Dark Protoman stared at the newcomer stupified. "Just who the hell is this whacko? I've never been one to believe in Santa, so drop the act."

The hellfire eyes turned to the Darkloid as the fat navi spoke again. "Oh I'm gonna shove coal so far up your stocking you'll be coughing up diamonds." Turning an accusing finger back to X he added, "And I'll have you know that I perform over one million checks and rechecks per second. You're both naughty...and Santa's got something very special for the both of you in his sack for you two."

X brightened up slightly while Dark Protoman slipped into a defensive stance. The Darkloid felt a sliver of pity since to him it seemed that X believed that he was off of the hook.

From Santa's sack came two gatling lasers. "Ho Ho Ho!" he shouted while immediately firing on the two fighters. The former enemies both took off running down the large passageway back into the main building hoping that the fat navi couldn't keep up.

"A friend of yours?" asked X while fleeing for his life. He was answered by with a shout from Dark Protoman saying, "If that was a friend of mine do you really think that I'd be running from him? What kind of moron are you?"

From behind them they heard Santa.EXE shout, "I heard that. I'm adding that to my list right now." Chancing a glance behind them they saw Santa.EXE in his sleigh with a pen in one hand and a really long list in the second. Looking up he saw the two looking at him and pulled out a missle launcher. "Eat this chumps!" he shouted firing the overly large missle.

* * *

On the other side of Sci-Labs Zero had found Axl and Palette with Axl apparently trying to seduce Palette into releasing him if the marks on her neck and the position that the two had been in earlier was indication. 

Layer had dissappeared, but Zero was certainly that she could handle herself if the need arose. When updating Axl as to the current situation they donned their armors and checked their weapons. Zero was careful during the explanation not to inform the teen about the spat between his adoptive mother and X.

As they reached near the docks the reploids found their comrade and Dark Protoman running away from an evil Santa toting a missle launcher. In the sleigh they saw a bound and gaged Laika struggling to get free.

Axl seemed the most freaked out of the Hunters. "What...what the hell is this?" Without hesitating they too turned and ran. "Why is their some sort of evil Santa here? What did you do X?"

"What makes you think that it's my fault?" The blue hunter resented being blamed for this. He did nothing to warrant such punishment in his mind even if he did snap at Denise.

Zero on the otherhand smacked X's helmet and replied, "Because you're usually the reason why other people wanna kill us. Isn't that always the case." _"Except for the few times that Mavericks went after Axl."_

"You've also been very naughty Axl." Santa again pulled out the gatling laser and started firing wildly.

The New Generation Reploid started glancing around nervously and said, "Wha, who me? Nah you must be thinking of Yai." He seemed to pull her out of nowhere and held the heiress where Santa could see her.

The twisted fat man glared even harder. "My God Axl...framing a defenseless little girl!? Have you no shame?! That's outrageous even for you and I've seen the things you do when no one is looking."

Everyone immediately glanced at Axl only to find a smoke trail leading way up ahead of them and out of Sci-Labs. _"That coward."_ they all thought in unison.

* * *

Near the Dimensional Area walls Ms. Yuri glared at her com with Dr. Regal looking back. "What do you mean that you lost control of the Dimensional Area? Are you really that pathetic? Why should I continue to work for you if you can't even do your own job like it's supposed to be done." 

"It is out of my hands. The controls are protected by a firewall so powerful that even Bass couldn't crack it. The source however is someone inside of Sci-Labs moving around rapidly." Regal hated to lose and that's just what had happened here. Someone in Sci-Labs had stolen the Syndicate leader's generators and now barred his use of them. Another thing that irked him was that the same someone had made the generators produce a field much wider then they should have been able to produce without blowing up.

Ms. Yuri glanced at her bound prize and then back the way that she had come. Juding from the explosions she could see there was no way she'd be willing to go back there. _"Not a chance. Although if I wait it out there in the possibility that whatever is in there will blow them all up. Yes, I'll wait and see."_

-crack-

* * *

Back in the war zone AKA Sci-Labs many workers ran after witnessing the evil Santa's attempts at slaying the Reploids and Darkloid. Santa.EXE knew that they were heading for the armory for additional weaponry. 

-Flashback-

_"Why are we running? We've got weapons too." Zero turned and charged Santa.EXE with his Z-Saber. The plasma blade connected with the Christmas navi's neck only causing it to pop rather than come clean off._

_Santa.EXE chuckled and just ripped Zero's hand off at the wrist. "Thanks, now let me give you a hand." He then proceeded to beat the crap out of the crimson hunter using his own severed hand that was still clenched around the Z-Saber._

_X and Axl charged their weapons to fire only to be cutoff when Rudolph's nose started to glow. Before either could attack the reindeer started firing lasers out of his nose._

_Dark Protoman turned down a passage while the others kept going straight. "I'd rather live to fight another day than be gunned down by a crazed Santa navi."_

_Zero eventually managed to retrieve his severed hand after using Laika as a shield to get close enough. The poor soldier was black and blue from Santa's brutal attack. On the bright side Zero was sure that he wouldn't remember seeing the reploid's hand ripped off and used as a weapon._

-End Flashback-

Axl cut in front of X so that the other Hunter blocked Rudolph's nose and shouted, "Please don't kill us. We'll leave lots of milk and cookies."

Santa started shaking his fist and picked up his missle launcher. "You dare try to bribe Santa Clause!? That's it! I'm going to tear off your skin like wrapping paper and deck the halls with your guts." When he tried to fire it he realized that there was a problem when Laika started screaming. He hadn't grabbed what he'd thought that he had. Instead he was holding the Sharo native and squeezing his family jewels instead of a trigger. "Well that's what you get for trying to escape non-believer. If there is one thing that I can't stand it's someone that believe in me."

From one of the side routes Layer showed up with Dr. Wildman tossed over her shoulder. "Come on this way." The other Hunters followed her and noticed that while Denise was awake she still had her mouth taped shut.

Layer lead them into the armory with the fiend still on their tail. Rudolph had apparently run out of energy as he nose stopped firing lasers much to the heroes relief.

Seeing the armory coming up Axl immediately came up with an idea. He pulled Yai closer and whispered in her ear. The blond's eyes widened before a sinister grin took it's place and she nodded in agreement.

Before they could carry out their plan Santa.EXE flew over their heads and now blocked their way to the armory. He pulled out his list on looked it over glancing from one hunter to the next before settling on Dr. Wildman. Zero shuttered to think of just what the freak would think of Dr. Wildman. _"Let's face it she's as naughty as they come. Evil, sadist."_

"You've all been naught. Very, very naughty...except you Makoto." He reached into his bag and pulled out several cubes that the Hunters instantly recognized as storage containers for large pieces of equipement. "These are for you." he said handing them to her after he unbound her.

The fat navi then stepped back as Zero began his verbal assault. "Makoto? Are you insane? Her name is Denise Wildman and I assure that this woman is anything, but nice. This collar around my neck proves that much!"

The navi glanced at the pleased woman and congratulated her. "Atleast someone finally put a leash on him. He was getting too out of control. You did very good Makoto."

"Are you deaf? Her name isn't Makoto it's Denise Wildman! Do you need me to spell it out for you?" The crimson demon went to attack, but was sat before he could reach Santa.EXE.

Axl picked Yai up and pointed her at the navi in the sleigh. "Shining Forehead of Doom!" Her forehead glowed brighter than the sun blinding the navi.

While Santa recovered Axl fired several grenades into his chest knocking the fat man and his sleigh into the armory. Layer sealed the doors while Axl tossed in one last grenade. X stood off to the side holding an unconcious Laika while grinning at the other Reploids.

Seconds later the armory exploded. The explosion was directed upwards since the walls were reinforced, but due to budget cutbacks the ceiling was not. As Santa flew off into to the sky he shouted, "I'll back...Next Christmas!!!"

* * *

When everything settled down and the Dimensional Area collapsed the Hunters discussed the damage control that would have to be done. Dark Protoman knew that their armors and weapons didn't rely on crossfussion and there was still the matter of protecting Denise. 

Zero kept badgering her trying to find out why the Santa wannabe kept calling her Makoto and what made the lunatic believe that she had ever been anything even resembling being nice. The good doctor however responded with multiple sits before walking away to talk with X. Denise knew that some things needed to be cleared up now before anything else happened and they were left with regrets.

* * *

High in the atmosphere Ms. Yuri, Needleman, and Dark Protoman discussed what they had seen and they all agreed never to mention this incident again. It also gave the former NetSavior some doubts about staying with Nebula although he didn't voice this feeling of his. 

As the shuttle rose higher into the atmosphere heading towards Regal's satellite a familiar being appeared on the roof. The being looked at the cloaked satellite and grinned. "Look out Dr. Regal...I'm dreaming...of a red Christmas. Ho Ho Ho!"

* * *

Author Note: I wanted to make a Christmas fic that all could enjoy...or fear. It was inspired by Futurama's Santabot. I'm also sorry if there are mistakes. I wanted it to be ready for Christmas, but got sidetracked by life. Also be sure to leave a review and voice your opinion in the poll about Dark Protoman's future. 


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